
%0 Journal Article
%A Beggs, Helen 
%A Zhong, Aihong 
%A Warren, Graham 
%A Alves, Oscar 
%A Brassington, Gary 
%A Pugh, Tim 
%T RAMSSA - An operational, high-resolution, 
Regional Australian Multi-Sensor Sea surface 
temperature Analysis over the Australian 
region
%J Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Journal
%D 2011/01/01
%V 61
%N 1
%P 1-22
%K 
%R https://doi.org/10.1071/ES11001
%U https://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/ES11001 
%X An operational, high-resolution, Regional Australian Multi-Sensor Sea surface temperature Analysis (RAMSSA) system has been developed at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology as part of the BLUElink Ocean Forecasting Australia project. The pre-existing operational, 1/4&#xb0; resolution, regional sea surface temperature (SST) analysis system has been modified to produce 1/12&#xb0; resolution, daily SST analyses over the Australian region (20&#xb0;N&#x2013;70&#xb0;S, 60&#xb0;E&#x2013;170&#xb0;W). The new RAMSSA system combines SST data from infrared and microwave sensors on polar-orbiting satellites with in situ measurements to produce daily &#x2018;foundation&#x2019; SST estimates, free of nocturnal cooling and diurnal warming effects. The RAMSSA analyses exhibited significantly less standard deviation than the pre-existing regional SST analyses when compared with independent buoy SST observations for the period 1 October 2007 to 31 March 2008 (0.42 &#xb0;C compared with 0.55 &#xb0;C) and agreed closely with those from daily foundation SST analyses produced by the UK Met Office and Ifremer using similar data sources (0.39 &#xb0;C and 0.49 &#xb0;C, respectively). The major differences between RAMSSA and these other foundation SST analyses relate to RAMSSA&#x2019;s method for creating super-observations and assigning weights to the various input data streams, and Ifremer and the Met Office analysis systems&#x2019; bias-correction of all satellite input data using SST data from the Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR). The lack of bias-correction of data input into RAMSSA has minimal effect north of 40&#xb0;S where RAMSSA is on average within &#xb1;0.07 &#xb0;C of other multi-sensor SST analyses. South of 40&#xb0;S, RAMSSA is on average 0.09 &#xb0;C to 0.25 &#xb0;C warmer than bias-corrected analyses studied, mainly due to systematic biases over this region in satellite SST data streams from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer &#x2013; Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) input into the analyses 
