Comparative Analysis of Satellite Databases of Incoming Short-Wavelength Fluxes to the World Ocean Surface

Abstract

This work involves satellite data provided by EUMETSAT’s Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring (CM SAF). The data cover the period from 1982 to 2015 depending on the type of satellite and coverage region. It has been found that monthly and daily average values for regional databases in the area of their overlap are overestimated for the western part and underestimated in the eastern part by approximately 25 W/m². The largest values for the mismatch of fluxes are observed at points close to the centers of database areas where the root-mean-square deviation reaches approximately 25 W/m². Comparative analysis of global and regional data reveals an area corresponding to the center of visibility for geostationary satellites. In this area, data from the satellites are comparable with global data; the difference between fluxes is less than 10 W/m². At the periphery of the satellite visibility area, the situation is the reverse: the global coverage data are more overstated than the regional data of geostationary satellites by more than 10 W/m²; the root-meansquare deviation is about 30 W/m² for daily average values and about 45 W/m² for hourly average values.