Global Lake Surface Water Temperatures for Biodiversity, Limnology, Meteorology and Climate
Merchant, Christopher¹; MacCallum, Stuart²; Layden, Aisling²; Goryl, Philippe^3
1University of Edinburgh/Reading, UNITED KINGDOM; ²University of Edinburgh, UNITED KINGDOM; ³ESA, ITALY

A reprocessing of Along Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR) archives has been undertaken to create global lake surface water temperature (LSWT) datasets for a range of applications. The project, funded by the European Space Agency and called ''ARC-Lake'', applies optimal estimation (OE) retrievals and probabilistic cloud screening methods to provide LSWT estimates for approximately 1000 lakes, globally, from 1991 to 2012. This methodology is generic (i.e. applicable to all lakes) as variations in physical properties such as elevation, salinity, and atmospheric conditions are accounted for through the forward modelling of observed radiances. The publicly available data products from ARC-Lake have been used, and have further potential for application, in a variety of fields, including meteorology, climate, and ecology. We will provide an overview of ARC-Lake from methodology through to applications of the LSWT datasets.