Multi-sensor match-up database for SST CCI

A multi-sensor match-up dataset (MMD) is a set of temporal and spatial coincidences between multiple satellite datasets of both L1 and L2 retrievals and time series of corresponding measurements from various types of in situ instruments. The implementation of a multi-sensor matchup database (MMDB) is a fundamental requirement for the sea surface temperature (SST) system of ESA’s Climate Change Initiative (CCI), facilitating the continuous algorithm improvement cycle. For the production of the SST-CCI round-robin data package (RRDP) an SST multi-mission match-up system (MMS) has been developed and implemented for the first time. The MMDB covers a period of 20 years and includes satellite datasets from (A)ATSR, NOAA AVHRR, MetOp AVHRR and SEVIRI, passive microwave AMSR-E and TMI, GOME-2, OSI SAF, analysis and forecast datasets from ECMWF, and in-situ measurement time series recorded by buoys, drifters, moorings and ships. In total, the MMDB includes more than 6 million match-up records. The MMS runs on the Edinburgh Compute and Data Facility (ECDF) cluster and makes use of the Sun Grid Engine (SGE). It employs the ATSR Reprocessing for Climate (ARC) software to retrieve SST on arbitrary sets of match-up records. The database implementation is based on open-source PostgreSQL with PostGIS extension. Poster presented at the ESA Sentinel-3 OLCI/SLSTR and MERIS/AATSR Workshop 2012 in Frascati, Italy.