High Spatial Resolution Indian River Lagoon Water Temperature Using VIIRS

The variations of SST in the Indian River lagoon are of interest to NASA operations and forecasting Northern Brevard county weather (Cooper, 1993). Comparisons of Satellite SST to in situ temperature measurements were made with a correlation of .94. The strong comparison gave this study significance in being able to estimate the IRL with one in situ measurement. East/West, North/South SST variations were studied. The SSTs varied the most East/West during the day in the winter at 1.2 degrees C. The SSTs varied the most North/South during the night in the winter also at 1.2 degrees C. Previous studies have noted discrepancies in river breeze results due to a lack of IRL SST information and using Ocean SST instead. The difference in SST between these two bodies of water was also found to be 2.5 degrees warmer in the Ocean during the night in the winter, and 1.3 degrees cooler in the Ocean during the day in the spring. 

The image attached is an example of a VIIRS overpass over the Indian River Lagoon. The resolution of this SST product is high enough to have a horizontal temperature map of the IRL.