GHRSST AMSR2: Global Near-Real-Time Sea Surface Temperature from Satellite

AMSR2, launched on 18 May 2012, provides near-real-time sea surface temperature data with a latency generally within 3 hours. The instrument's conical scan mechanism enables more than 99% coverage of the Earth every 2 days over a 1450 km swath. This version 8.2 dataset is produced by Remote Sensing Systems for the GHRSST Project and supersedes the previous v8a release.

Use Cases

• Modeling climate variation mechanisms based on global, long-term SST observations.
• Monitoring near-real-time ocean temperature for operational forecasting based on data with ~3-hour latency.
• Analyzing global water cycle patterns based on concurrent measurements of SST, water vapor, and precipitation.
• Calibrating other satellite SST products based on the microwave radiometry methodology from AMSR2.

Strengths

• Provides near-real-time data with a latency generally within 3 hours.
• Achieves more than 99% coverage of the Earth every 2 days.
• Continues a long-term observation record from the Aqua/AMSR-E mission.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration; data derived from the AMSR2 instrument on the JAXA GCOM-W satellite by Remote Sensing Systems.

Collection Method

Microwave emission measurements from a satellite-borne radiometer with a rotating antenna.

Time Range

Observations began after the instrument's launch on 18 May 2012.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 02:34:03.074920; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage.