New developments in AVHRR sea surface temperature and derived products

Since the early 1980's NOAA's National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service (NESDIS) has been operationally generating sea surface temperatures (SSTs) from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) instrument on board the TIROS-N series of polar-orbiting satellites, also known as the Polar Operational Environmental Satellites (POES). Recently, NESDIS has implemented new algorithms and a new software system for the retrieval of SST. The new SST retrieval system, named Advanced Clear-Sky Processor for Oceans (ACSPO), now generates SSTs with much higher density and in a more modern format than from the legacy retrieval system. The ACSPO system is also generating SSTs from the 1km global AVHRR data now available from the Meteorological Operational satellite program (MetOp-A) spacecraft, a cooperative program between Europe and the U.S. The new product files generated from the ACSPO system contain many parameters not previously available from the legacy system. The ACSPO product files (level 2) are described. New developments in higher level products derived from level 2 SST are also described.