Global Sea Surface Temperature from NOAA-16 AVHRR Satellite

NOAA-16 satellite's Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer provides global sea surface temperature measurements at a ground resolution of 1.1 km. Data is processed into Level 2P format following the GHRSST specification version 1.5, sourced from the US Naval Oceanographic Office and archived by NASA PO.DAAC. This dataset offers daily global coverage with a swath width of approximately 2400 km.

Use Cases

• Analyzing global ocean heat content trends using the derived sea surface temperature variable.
• Studying diurnal warming cycles by comparing twice-daily observations from the sun-synchronous satellite.
• Validating ocean circulation and climate models with spatially consistent, globally subsampled GAC data.
• Monitoring marine heatwaves and El Niño events through time-series analysis of bulk SST retrievals.

Strengths

• Provides high-resolution data with a nadir ground resolution of 1.1 km.
• Offers broad spatial coverage with a satellite swath of approximately 2400 km for daily global observation.
• Follows a standardized international processing specification (GHRSST-PP GDS version 1.5).
• Leverages a long operational legacy of AVHRR instruments dating back to 1978.

Limitations

• Specific row count, total size, and complete column schema are unknown from the provided sources.
• There is a conflict in the 'last updated' metadata, with one source listing 2006-08-14 and another listing 2026-03-06.

Provenance

Source

US Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVO), processed by GHRSST and distributed via NASA Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC).

Collection Method

Derived from multi-channel SST retrievals from the AVHRR sensor on the NOAA-16 satellite, processed from Global Area Coverage binary data.

Time Range

Data collection began after the NOAA-16 satellite launch on 21 September 2000.

Freshness

2026-03-06 00:05:48.859380

Geography

Global ocean coverage.