GHRSST Level 3C: North Atlantic Sea Surface Temperature from SNPP/VIIRS Satellite

A regional sea surface temperature dataset for the North Atlantic Region based on infrared retrievals from the SNPP/VIIRS satellite. 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, delivering four six-hourly collated files per day on a regular 2km grid. The product format complies with the GHRSST Data Specification version 2.

Use Cases

• Modeling ocean-atmosphere heat exchange based on subskin sea surface temperature measurements.
• Analyzing diurnal temperature cycles in the North Atlantic based on the four-times-daily data frequency.
• Validating and calibrating other SST models or satellite products based on the GHRSST-standard 2km grid.
• Monitoring marine heatwave events in the North Atlantic region based on near real-time satellite retrievals.

Strengths

• Data is produced in near real time, supporting timely analysis.
• Spatial resolution is on a regular 2km grid, providing regional detail.
• Product is compliant with the standardized GHRSST Data Specification version 2.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and total dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the North Atlantic Region focus.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

SST retrieved from SNPP/VIIRS infrared channels using a multispectral algorithm; level 0 data acquired through direct readout and processed at Meteo-France/Centre de Meteorologie Spatiale (CMS).

Time Range

Temporal coverage is not specified in the provided metadata.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 02:40:53.533029; freshness should be verified.

Geography

North Atlantic Region (NAR).