Sunglint and its observation in AVHRR data

This paper describes a number of aspects of sunglint in AVHRR data. The theory of Cox and Munk is used for the extraction of near-surface wind speeds from 5 AVHRR scenes of the western Mediterranean from 1982. The results are compared with meteorological observations. The strong correlation between calm areas observed from Band-1 data and areas of skin-layer heating in Band-4 data is described; the magnitude of the temperature difference associated with the skin effect was found to be about 1.8 degK. It is illustrated with data from another 4 scenes that calculations of sea surface temperature from Band-4 or Band-5 data for an area of sunglint are subject to an error of up to 2 degK if the reflected solar radiation is neglected.