Atlantic Ocean Sea Surface Temperature from AMSR-E Satellite

2002 to present data provides subskin sea surface temperature (SST) measurements for the North Atlantic region from the AMSR-E instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite. The dataset is processed to GHRSST GDS version 1.5 specifications by the Medspiration Regional Data Assembly Center, offering separate files for daytime and nighttime orbits. Its cross-platform presence on NASA Earthdata and Data.gov indicates established use within the scientific community.

Use Cases

• Analyzing SST trends and anomalies in the North Atlantic Ocean using the subskin temperature measurements.
• Studying diurnal temperature variation by comparing data from separate ascending (daytime) and descending (nighttime) orbit files.
• Validating or complementing cloud-obscured infrared SST datasets due to AMSR-E's cloud-penetrating capability.
• Investigating relationships between SST and other geophysical parameters like wind speed or atmospheric water vapor, which AMSR-E also measures.

Strengths

• Provides an uninterrupted view of SST due to the instrument's capability to see through clouds.
• Data is processed to a standardized international specification (GHRSST GDS version 1.5).
• Covers a long time series from the instrument's launch in May 2002.

Limitations

• Spatial coverage is limited to the North Atlantic region, not global.
• Sources conflict on the last update date (2007 vs. 2026), suggesting potential metadata or pipeline issues.
• Key metadata such as row count, column names, and license are unavailable across all platforms.

Provenance

Source

NASA/JAXA AMSR-E instrument on the Aqua satellite, processed by the Medspiration Regional Data Assembly Center for GHRSST.

Collection Method

Derived from Remote Sensing Systems BMAPS format AMSR-E SST subskin data, downloaded hourly and processed to L2P/L3C specifications.

Time Range

2002-05-04 to present

Freshness

2026-03-05 22:23:49.219099

Geography

North Atlantic Ocean