Monthly Average Sea Surface Temperatures over the Tuscan Sea

This paper examines the time variation of regional Sea Surface Temperature (SST) mean measurements by using AVHRR data collected over a seven-year period. An automatic calculation chain implements the algorithm for estimating the temperature using sub-pixel resolution and proper geolocation. This procedure also performs a cloudy pixel detection based on regional temperature maps. For average computation, the data from NOAA 12, 15, 17 and 18 satellites in the period from July 2005 to September 2008, collected in real time at the Satellite Receiving Station of the University of Florence (Prato Campus, located in 43°53’.134 N – 11° 05’.942 E), were used, for a total of 2164 passes; only those passes, with maximum elevation over 50°, were considered. The zone under study is the sea around the Tuscan Archipelago (Italy), which was divided into 23 sub-zones. Such a detail in analysing can highlight certain trends of SST, e.g.those caused by the Magra and Arno Rivers’ influence during the winter in the Versilia area or those originated by the phenomena retraceable to local currents in the area of Punta Ala and Castiglione della Pescaia.