Newsletter #9

Newsletter #9 - August 28th, 2025
Back-to-work season for OSI SAF!
Dear users, colleagues and partners,

A summer has passed since the last newsletter and again, a lot has happened. We keep preparing the next phase of our project. Important changes are occurring in our catalogue as DMSP/SSMIS data will now be available on a best-effort basis. This summer sees as well the release as pre-operational of a new Sea Surface Temperature. Many things to tell...
Latest stories
Implications of the end of SSMIS data on OSI SAF products
Satellite from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program
The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program's has been providing us with data for a long period. Their data is becoming less reliable as this satellite program is reaching its end. This page will be regularly updated to provide you with the latest information about SSMIS end of life and about the implications on OSI SAF products.
Read the full story
Sea state dependency of scatterometer vertical and horizontal polarized surface returns

Wind scatterometers measure the Normalized Radar Cross Section (NRCS) of the ocean surface. This is done by emitting microwaves to the ocean at moderate incidence angles and receiving the returned power. In this story, we present the study of new and sensitive methodology to detect the swell dependency of the horizontal polarization of the NRCS. Check this story to learn more.

Read the full story 		Anomalies of the Maximum Likelihood Estimator.
What's up ?

Level 3 MTG/FCI Sea Surface Temperature pre-operational

On the 7th of August 2025, the Level 3 MTG/FCI Sea Surface Temperature [OSI-206-b], based on Meteosat Third Generation input was seleased with a pre-operational status. It is the continuity of the Meteosat Sea Surface Temperature [OSI-206-a] based on Meteosat Second Generation in 0°.

first pre-operational data of the Level 3 MTG/FCI SST

Like for the MSG product, the MTG product is a level 3, hourly, sub-skin Sea Surface Temperature derived from Meteosat at 0° longitude, covering 60S-60N and 60W-60E and re-projected on a 0.05° regular grid, in GHRSST compliant netCDF format.

The MTG product benefits from the higher temporal and spatial resolution of MTG, but the output files have the same temporal and spatial sampling as the MSG product.

The OSI SAF MTG SST product is in line with the requirements, as you can read in the Scientific Validation Report available on the product page, but is released as pre-operational, because of the limited validation period (3 months).

The Product User Manual and the Algortihm Theoretical Basis Document are also available on the product page.

We invite our geostationnary SST users to use the MTG product and provide us with feedback, either positive or negative.

The MSG SST product is however still distributed at least until the MTG product gets the operational status.

EUMETSAT 30th Meteorological Satellite Conference

On 15-19 September 2025, EUMETSAT organises its 30th annual Meteorological Satellite Conference in Lyon (France). As every year, OSI SAF will be represented. Come to listen to our presentations and to chat around our posters:

Oral presentations:

- How to improve users understanding of OSI SAF Sea Surface Temperature products and catalogue. G. Le Bras et al.
Monday 15/09/2025 14:30
- Improving Ocean Wind Forcing Reanalysis and Forecasting: Machine Learning Approaches for NWP Bias Correction. M.Portabella et al.
Monday 15/09/2025 16:30
- Analysis of coastal winds derived from QuickSCAT at OSI SAF. G. Grieco et al.
Tuesday 16/09/2025 12:00
- Panel: Observing the oceans from space, from the actual to the future. C. Hernandez et al.
Thursday 18/09/2025 09:00
- OSI SAF Near-Real-Time Sea Ice Concentration products and status. S. Singha et al.
Thursday 18/09/2025 14:45
- The OSI SAF Sea-Ice Index: A new version of a key resource for Climate Monitoring. S. Eastwood et al.
Thursday 18/09/2025 15:30

Posters:

- Updates on OSI SAF Global Sea Ice Emissivity Product. S. Singah et al.
Bellecour reception hall n°130
- Analysis of the scatterometer ocean surface measurement dependency on sea state: an update. M. Portabella et al.
Bellecour reception hall n°211

EUMETSAT's Climate Symposium

On 28-30 October 2025, EUMETSAT is organising its EUMETSAT Climate Symposium “From Space to Climate Service: Co-creation in Action”. This event aims at networking the satellite Climate Data producers with the policy and decision makers, in order to exchange on the existing product catalogues, and on the needs for future products.

As every Satellite Application that produces Climate Data, OSI SAF will be present to the symposium. Will we meet you there ?
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