Medspiration – System Requirements Document - Data User Element

Medspiration
MED-SOC-RS-001_1
System Requirements Document
Issue F
models. It is never observed directly by satellites, but it comes closest to being
detected by a microwave radiometer which penetrates the skin, at dawn when the
previous day’s diurnal stratification can be assumed to have decayed and
SSTsubskin, SSTdepth and SSTfnd are equal.
Figure 2-1 Schematic diagram showing (a) idealised night-time vertical temperature
deviations from SSTfnd and (b) idealised day-time vertical temperature deviations
from SSTfnd in the upper ocean.
Although the distinctions between the different definitions of SST may seem arcane, they
are very significant when uncertainties of temperature measurement less than 0.3ºC are
being sought.
2.1.2 Medspiration SST Products
The Medspiration processing system (MPS) will adhere closely to the data processing
model and product specifications defined by the GHRSST-PP [RD.1]. It will produce the
following data products:
• L2P SST products for the European RDAC area which spans from 70S to 90N (to the
ice limit) and from 100W to 45E and contains the whole Atlantic and the adjacent
European seas (see Figure 2-2). Parts of the Pacific Ocean within these limits are
expressly excluded. L2P products consist of the L2 SST data in their native sampling
grid as ingested, with the addition of a quantitative confidence value attached to
every data point. The confidence value will be based on the sensor specific error
© 2004 SOC Page 16 of 193