GHRSST Level 2P: Global Sea Surface Temperature from MetOp-A AVHRR at 8.8 km Resolution

A global dataset of sea surface temperature (SST) derived from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on the European MetOp-A satellite, produced by the US Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVO). The data is processed from Global Area Coverage (GAC) samples, resulting in a final resolution of 8.8 km. The MetOp-A platform, launched in October 2006, is sun-synchronous and provides observations twice daily depending on latitude.

Use Cases

• Assimilating near-real-time SST observations into ocean circulation models based on the operational use mentioned.
• Monitoring global climate variability and trends based on the long-term, satellite-derived temperature record.
• Validating and calibrating higher-resolution SST products from other sensors based on the wide-swath, twice-daily coverage.
• Studying diurnal warming and other short-term sea surface processes based on the sun-synchronous, twice-daily observation pattern.

Strengths

• Data is produced and used operationally by the US Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVO), suggesting operational quality standards.
• Derived from the AVHRR instrument with a wide swath of approximately 2400 km, enabling broad spatial coverage.
• Based on a sun-synchronous satellite platform, providing consistent temporal sampling with observations twice daily at a given latitude.

Limitations

• The effective resolution is 8.8 km after processing from GAC data, which is lower than the instrument's native 1.1 km capability.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for specific modeling tasks.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), with data from the European MetOp-A satellite and processing by the US Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVO).

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing using the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), with SST retrievals typically from the 11 and 12 micron thermal channels.

Time Range

Observations began after the MetOp-A launch on 19 October 2006; the dataset is produced in real-time.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 02:34:03.095754; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global ocean coverage.