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SST diurnal warming in the China seas and northwestern Pacific Ocean using MTSAT satellite observations

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Abstract

Hourly sea surface temperature (SST) observations from the geostationary satellite are increasingly used in studies of the diurnal warming of the surface oceans. The aim of this study is to derive the spatial and temporal distribution of diurnal warming in the China seas and northwestern Pacific Ocean from Multi-functional Transport Satellite (MTSAT) SST. The MTSAT SST is validated against drifting buoy measurements firstly. It shows mean biases is about–0.2°C and standard deviation is about 0.6°C comparable to other satellite SST accuracy. The results show that the tropics, mid-latitudes controlled by subtropical high and marginal seas are frequently affected by large diurnal warming. The Kuroshio and its extension regions are smaller compared with the surrounding regions. A clear seasonal signal, peaking at spring and summer can be seen from the long time series of diurnal warming in the domain in average. It may due to large insolation and low wind speed in spring and summer, while the winter being the opposite. Surface wind speed modulates the amplitude of the diurnal cycle by influencing the surface heat flux and by determining the momentum flux. For the shallow marginal seas, such as the East China Sea, turbidity would be another important factor promoting diurnal warming. It suggests the need for the diurnal variation to be considered in SST measurement, air-sea flux estimation and multiple sensors SST blending.

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Acknowledgements

MTSAT data were provided by JAMI and processed by Australian Bureau of Meteorology to retrieve the SST. The surface heat flux and wind speed data were obtained from NCEP/NCAR reanalysis dataset. The quality controlled drifting buoy SST was provided by iQuam/NOAA. The authors thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions on our manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Satellite Ocean Environment Dynamics, Second Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration, Hangzhou, 310012, China

    Qianguang Tu, Delu Pan, Zengzhou Hao & Yunwei Yan

  2. Department of Earth Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China

    Qianguang Tu & Delu Pan

  3. College of Geomatics and Municipal Engineering, Zhejiang University of Water Resources and Electric Power, Hangzhou, 310018, China

    Qianguang Tu

Authors
  1. Qianguang Tu
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  2. Delu Pan
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  3. Zengzhou Hao
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  4. Yunwei Yan
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Correspondence to Zengzhou Hao.

Additional information

Foundation item: The National Key Research and Development Program of China under contract No. 2016YFC1401903; the Scientific Research Fund of the Second Institute of Oceanography, SOA under contract No. JT1503; the Project of State Key Laboratory of Satellite Ocean Environment Dynamics, Second Institute of Oceanography under contract No. SOEDZZ1515.

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Tu, Q., Pan, D., Hao, Z. et al. SST diurnal warming in the China seas and northwestern Pacific Ocean using MTSAT satellite observations. Acta Oceanol. Sin. 35, 12–18 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-016-0968-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-016-0968-9

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