A new global gridded sea surface temperature product constructed from infrared and microwave radiometer data using the optimum interpolation method

A new 0.1° gridded daily sea surface temperature (SST) data product is presented covering the years 2003–2015. It is created by fusing satellite SST data retrievals from four microwave (WindSat, AMSR-E, ASMR2 and HY-2A RM) and two infrared (MODIS and AVHRR) radiometers (RMs) based on the optimum interpolation (OI) method. The effect of including HY-2A RM SST data in the fusion product is studied, and the accuracy of the new SST product is determined by various comparisons with moored and drifting buoy measurements. An evaluation using global tropical moored buoy measurements shows that the root mean square error (RMSE) of the new gridded SST product is generally less than 0.5°C. A comparison with US National Data Buoy Center meteorological and oceanographic moored buoy observations shows that the RMSE of the new product is generally less than 0.8°C. A comparison with measurements from drifting buoys shows an RMSE of 0.52–0.69°C. Furthermore, the consistency of the new gridded SST dataset and the Remote Sensing Systems microwave-infrared SST dataset is evaluated, and the result shows that no significant inconsistency exists between these two products.