GHRSST L2P: Global Sea Surface Skin Temperature from NASA Aqua MODIS

Full global coverage is obtained every two days, with daily coverage poleward of 32.3 degrees. The dataset provides sea surface skin temperature (SST) products at 1 km spatial resolution, derived from infrared channels of the MODIS instrument on the NASA Aqua satellite. It is a joint production by NASA JPL, the Ocean Biology Processing Group, and the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, superseding the R2014.0 version.

Use Cases

• Modeling ocean heat content and climate patterns based on global, high-resolution sea surface temperature measurements.
• Validating other satellite or in-situ SST products based on the dual-algorithm (NSST and SST4) approach described.
• Studying diurnal temperature cycles based on the separate day/night skin SST and night-only SST4 products.
• Analyzing polar ocean dynamics based on the complete daily coverage provided for latitudes poleward of 32.3 degrees.

Strengths

• Provides two distinct SST products: a day/night skin SST and a lower-uncertainty night-only SST4.
• Offers 1 km spatial resolution at nadir, with 288 five-minute data granules produced per day.
• Full global coverage every two days, with complete daily coverage for regions poleward of 32.3 degrees.

Limitations

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

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), specifically the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Ocean Biology Processing Group (OBPG), and Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS).

Collection Method

Derived from Infrared (IR) channels of the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard the Aqua satellite, launched May 4, 2002.

Time Range

Data collection began after the Aqua satellite launch in May 2002; the dataset represents the R2019.0 version.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 02:33:58.609753; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global.