The sea surface skin temperature (SSTskin), or ocean skin temperature, is the temperature of the sea surface as determined through its infrared spectrum (3.7–12 μm) and represents the temperature of the sublayer of water at a depth of 10–20 μm. High-resolution data of skin temperature gained by satellites in passive infrared measurements is a crucial constituent in determining the sea surface temperature (SST). Since the skin layer is in radiative equilibrium with the atmosphere and the sun, its temperature underlies a daily cycle. Even small changes in the skin temperature can lead to large changes in atmospheric circulation. This makes skin temperature a widely used quantity in weather forecasting and climate science.
Remote Sensing Large-scale sea surface skin temperature measurements started with the use of satellites in remote sensing. The underlying principle of this kind of measurement is to determine the surface temperature via its black body spectrum. Different measurement devices are installed where each device measures a different wavelength. Every wavelength corresponds to different sublayers in the upper 500 μm of the ocean water column. Since this layer shows a strong temperature gradient, the observed temperature depends on the wavelength used. Therefore, the measurements are often indicated with their wavelength band instead of their depths.
History First satellite measurements of the sea surface were conducted as early as 1964 by Nimbus-I. Further satellites were deployed in 1966 and the early 1970s. Early measurements suffered from contamination by atmospheric disturbances. The first satellite to carry a sensor operating on multiple infrared bands was launched late in 1978, which enabled atmospheric correction. This class of sensors is called Advanced very-high-resolution radiometers (AVHRR) and provides information that is also relevant for the tracking of clouds. The current, third-generation features six channels at wavelength ranges important for cloud observation, cloud/snow differentiation, surface temperature observation and atmospheric correction. The modern satellite array is able to give a global coverage with a resolution of 10 km every ~6 h.
Conversion to SST Sea surface skin temperature measurements are completed with SSTsubskin measurements in the microwave regime to estimate the sea surface temperature. These measurements have the advantage of being independent of cloud cover and underlie less variation. The conversion to SST is done via elaborate retrieval algorithms. These algorithms take additional information like the current wind, cloud cover, precipitation and water vapor content into account and model the heat transfer between the layers. The determined SST is validated by in-situ measurements from ships, buoys and profilers. On average, the skin temperature is estimated to be systematically cooler by 0.15 ± 0.1 K compared to the temperature at 5m depth.
Vertical temperature profile of the sea surface The vertical temperature profile of the surface layer of the ocean is determined by different heat transport processes. At the very interface, the ocean is in thermal equilibrium with the atmosphere which is dominated by conductive and diffusive heat transfer. Also, evaporation takes place at the interface and thus cools the skin layer. Below the skin layer lies the subskin layer, this layer is defined as the layer where molecular and viscous heat transfer dominates. At larger scales, as the much bigger foundation layer, turbulent heat transport through eddies contributes most to the vertical heat transfer. During the day, there is additional heating by the sun. The solar radiation entering the ocean gets heats the surface following the Beer-Lambert law. Here, approximately five percent of the incoming radiation is absorbed in the upper 1 mm of the ocean. Since the heating from above leads to a stable stratification, other processes dominate the heat transport, depending on the considered scale.
Regarding the skin layer with thickness δ {\displaystyle \delta } , turbulent diffusion term K w {\displaystyle K_{w}} is negligible. For the stationary case without external heating, the vertical temperature profile obeys the following energy budget:
ρ w c w k w ∂ T ∂ z = Q = L H + S H + L W , {\displaystyle \rho _{w}c_{w}k_{w}{\frac {\partial T}{\partial z}}=Q=LH+SH+LW,}
Here, ρ w {\displaystyle \rho _{w}} and c w {\displaystyle c_{w}} denote the density and heat capacity of water, k w {\displaystyle k_{w}} the molecular thermal conductivity and ∂ T ∂ z . {\displaystyle {\tfrac {\partial T}{\partial z}}.} the vertical partial derivative of the temperature. The vertical heat difference Q {\displaystyle Q} consists of latent heat release, sensible heat fluxes and the net longwave thermal radiation. The Q {\displaystyle Q} observed in the skin layer is positive, which corresponds to a temperature increasing with depth (Note that the z-axis points downward into the ocean). This leads to a cool skin layer as can be seen in Fig. 2. A common empiric description of the vertical temperature profile within the skin layer of depth δ {\displaystyle \delta } is:
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