Assessment of Global FY-3C/VIRR Sea Surface Temperature

Fengyun-3C (FY-3C) is a second-generation meteorological satellite of China that was launched on 23 September 2013. The on board Visible and Infrared Radiometer (VIRR) can be used to observe global sea surface temperature (SST). In this paper, the VIRR SST products are compared with MODIS SST products and buoy measurements from 2015 to 2019. The collocations of VIRR, MODIS, and buoy SST are generated separately during the day and night with the spatial window of 0.05° × 0.05°. The comparison results show that the biases of VIRR SST minus buoy SST during the day and night are −0.21 and −0.13 °C with a corresponding robust standard deviation (RSD) of 0.58 and 0.59 °C, respectively. The mean differences between VIRR and MODIS are −0.10 and 0.08 °C with RSDs of 0.53 and 0.58 °C for the daytime and nighttime, respectively. The consistency of VIRR SST accuracy from 2015 to 2019 and the dependence of VIRR SST error on SST and latitude are also investigated.