Limiting Factors Affecting Synergistic Use of AATSR and MERIS Data
Smith, David¹; Corlet, Gary²; Cassadio, Stefano³; Nightingale, Tim^1
1RAL Space, UNITED KINGDOM; ²University of Leicester, UNITED KINGDOM; ³SERCO, ITALY

AATSR and MERIS-RR L1b radiometric data are regridded to a regular 1km x 1km grid. A similar approach is currently foreseen for Sentinel-3 L1 products. That the actual sampling and spatial resolution of the sensors does not match the grid resolution is often overlooked by users. Even with accurate pixel geo-location, the assumption that the data are co-registered, have the same sampling interval and spatial resolution can lead to a mis-interpretation of the data and lead to errors in retrievals. We provide examples of cases where such errors can occur and the improvements when the native pixel location and field of view are considered. We propose that future developments of L1b data should consider retaining the geolocated radiometric data in the native instrument coordinates in order to preserve the full data content. This would have the added benefit of simplifying the data processing and is a more efficient use of data storage.