GHRSST Level 2P: Hourly Sea Surface Temperature from MTSAT-2 Satellite

Skin sea surface temperature (SST) measurements derived from infrared channels of the MTSAT-2 (Himawari 7) geostationary satellite. The Japan Meteorological Agency operates the satellite, which provides nominal hourly full Earth disk images, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration processed the data following the GHRSST Data Processing Specification version 2.0. Measurements are calculated using a Bayesian Cloud Mask algorithm at the Office of Satellite and Product Operations.

Use Cases

• Modeling ocean heat flux and climate patterns based on hourly skin sea surface temperature data.
• Analyzing diurnal temperature cycles in the Western Pacific based on the satellite's hourly observation schedule.
• Validating and calibrating other sea surface temperature products using the Single Sensor Error Statistics (SSES) included in the L2P dataset.
• Studying cloud masking performance for infrared satellite imagery based on the described Bayesian algorithm.

Strengths

• Data is processed according to the standardized GHRSST Data Processing Specification (GDS) version 2.0.
• Includes Single Sensor Error Statistics (SSES) for quality assessment.
• Provides hourly temporal resolution for monitoring diurnal changes.
• Derived from a geostationary satellite offering consistent coverage of the Asia-Pacific region centered on 140 East.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The spatial resolution for the source infrared imagery is stated as 4 km, which may limit fine-scale analysis.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Skin SST calculated from MTSAT-2 Imager IR channels using a Bayesian Cloud Mask algorithm at the Office of Satellite and Product Operations.

Time Range

Hourly basis from the satellite's operational period.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 02:33:23.398963; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Western Pacific Regional, Asia-Pacific hemisphere centered on 140 East.