GHRSST L3C: NOAA GOES-18 Satellite Sea Surface Temperature for West America

GOES-18, the Western Hemisphere's most sophisticated weather-observing satellite, provides this sea surface temperature dataset. The NOAA ACSPO system produces 24 hourly files per day, totaling 0.7 GB daily, with data validated against in situ measurements. It includes subskin and depth temperature readings, plus sensor-specific error statistics for each pixel.

Use Cases

• Monitoring daily ocean temperature anomalies based on hourly gridded SST data.
• Validating climate and weather forecast models based on sensor-specific error statistics (bias and standard deviation) per pixel.
• Analyzing thermal patterns in coastal and internal waters based on valid SSTs reported over oceans, seas, lakes, and rivers.
• Studying the transition from near-real-time to delayed-mode processing based on the ~2-month latency for final data replacement.

Strengths

• Includes two Sensor-Specific Error Statistics layers (bias and standard deviation) in each pixel with valid SST, per GDS2 specifications.
• Validated against iQuam in situ data and continuously monitored in the NOAA SQUAM system.
• Produces 24 hourly data granules per day with a daily volume of 0.7 GB, providing high temporal resolution.
• Data undergoes a quality transition from Near-Real-Time to Delayed Mode files with improved atmospheric inputs.

Limitations

• Data over internal waters may not have enough in situ data to be adequately validated, as noted in the description.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for specific analytical tasks.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), processed by the NOAA ACSPO system.

Collection Method

Derived from the ABI sensor onboard the GOES-18 satellite, gridded into Level 3 Collated (L3C) products.

Time Range

Data collection began after the GOES-18 launch on March 1, 2022; dataset includes hourly outputs.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 02:34:14.156253; freshness should be verified.

Geography

West America Region, covering oceans, seas, lakes, and rivers within the satellite's field of view.