Global comparisons between the modified Pathfinder derived sea surface temperature and skin temperatures from the Along-Track Scanning Radiometer on-board ERS-2: how close are we getting?

Sea surface temperatures (SST) as derived from the Pathfinder sea surface temperature data set and the Along-Track Scanning Radiometer on-board the European Remote Sensing satellite provide a unique opportunity for comparing two independent SST data sets. Previous comparisons (Vazquez-Cuervo and Sumgaysay, 2001) with the ATSR-l instrument on-board the ERS-1 platform indicated that biases on the order of 1 degree are possible. A significant percentage of this bias appears to be attributable to cloud contamination in either the Pathfinder or ATSR data sets. We continue the comparisons, but with the ATSR-2 data.