ACSPO SSTs off the Oregon Coast
Clear skies to the west of Oregon and California in the past two days have allowed VIIRS data (VIIRS — the Visible-Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite flying on both Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20) to produce compelling imagery of the Sea Surface using Advanced Clear Sky Processing for Ocean (ACSPO) algorithms. VIIRS imagery is downlinked at the Direct Broadcast site at the UW-Madison; data are processed using CSPP. Purple values are just a bit cooler than 50º F; Yellow values are in the mid-60s ºF.
ACSPO estimates of SSTs are important over the Pacific Northwest because the Level 2 SST GOES-16 product is not computed near the GOES-16 limb. Level 2 Clear Sky mask is not computed out to the limb, as shown below, and GOES-16 SSTs (Full-Disk only products) are not computed out to the edge of the Clear Sky mask! So, if you want satellite-derived SSTs (GOES-17 Level 2 products are not yet widely available), Polar-Orbiting data are the way to go.
AWIPS-ready ACSPO SST files are available from via an LDM feed from CIMSS.