Aqua MODIS Level-2: Daytime Sea Surface Temperature Data from Satellite

Satellite-derived global sea surface temperature (SST) data from the Aqua MODIS instrument, processed to version R2019.0. The dataset is produced by the OB_DAAC organization and includes variables for SST, bias, standard deviation, and quality flags. It is intended for daytime observations and is sensitive to atmospheric conditions.

Use Cases

• Detecting ocean fronts and eddies based on spatial temperature gradients.
• Monitoring marine heatwaves based on temporal SST anomalies.
• Driving ecosystem and habitat models when paired with chlorophyll-a and light attenuation data.
• Providing boundary conditions for biogeochemical and climate analyses based on the SST variable.

Strengths

• Includes multiple quality control variables such as 'qual_sst', 'flags_sst', and 'l2_flags' for data filtering.
• Provides derived uncertainty metrics including 'bias_sst' and 'stdv_sst' for error assessment.
• Data is derived from the MODIS instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite, a well-established source.

Limitations

• IR-based SST is described as sensitive to clouds, aerosols, and diurnal warming, which can introduce noise.
• Row count, file formats, and specific temporal coverage are unknown, limiting suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred from the provided variable list.

Provenance

Source

OB_DAAC, via NASA's Earthdata platform.

Collection Method

Derived from thermal infrared observations by the MODIS instrument on the Aqua satellite.

Geography

Global