GHRSST Level 3C: North Atlantic Sea Surface Temperature from VIIRS and AVHRR

GHRSST Level 3C North Atlantic Regional (NAR) subskin Sea Surface Temperature from SNPP/VIIRS and Metop-A/AVHRR produced by OSI SAF (GDS version 2) provides satellite-derived sea surface temperature measurements. The European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility (OSI SAF) produces this product in near real time using a multispectral algorithm on infrared data. It is delivered as four six-hourly collated files per day on a regular 2km grid.

Use Cases

• Monitoring ocean heat content and thermal fronts in the North Atlantic Region based on the 2km grid resolution.
• Assimilating near real-time sea surface temperature data into numerical weather prediction and ocean circulation models.
• Validating and calibrating other satellite or in-situ SST measurements using the GHRSST Data Specification (GDS) version 2 compliant format.
• Studying diurnal and seasonal SST variability using the four-times-daily temporal resolution.

Strengths

• Data is produced in near real time, supporting operational monitoring and forecasting.
• Spatial resolution is specified as a regular 2km grid.
• Product is compliant with the international GHRSST Data Specification (GDS) version 2, ensuring interoperability.

Limitations

• Metadata completeness is low: column names, row counts, file sizes, and license information are unknown across all sources.
• Conflicting freshness: one source lists a last update date of 2026-03-05, while another lists 2016-11-22, creating uncertainty about data currency.
• The dataset's specific temporal coverage (start and end dates) is not provided.

Provenance

Source

European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility (OSI SAF).

Collection Method

Sea surface temperature is retrieved from AVHRR and VIIRS infrared channels using a multispectral algorithm. Global AVHRR level 1b data are acquired at Meteo-France/Centre de Meteorologie Spatiale (CMS) through the EUMETSAT/EUMETCAST system; NAR SNPP/VIIRS level 0 data are acquired through direct readout and converted into l1b at CMS.

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:57:01.024083 (from datagov), but conflicting with 2016-11-22 (from nasa_earthdata).

Geography

North Atlantic Region (NAR).