An objective analysis scheme for AVHRR imagery

An objective analysis scheme has been modified and used for AVHRR imagery. The computing time involved in the sorting process applied to each interpolation point, has been significantly reduced exploiting the fact that satellite-derived data are regularly sampled and that the covariance function behaviour (monotonically decreasing) is known. Spatial gaps in the sea surface temperature (SST) maps resulting from cloud coverage, atmospheric phenomena and missing data were optimally interpolated using neighbouring, future and past pixels. A comparison of objective analysis (OA) and compositing techniques results has shown that while the latter does not retain the rapidly varying features moving along the northern edge of the Ligurian gyre the former reproduces them accurately. -from Authors