GHRSST AMSR2: Global Near-Real-Time Sea Surface Temperature from GCOM-W Satellite

GHRSST Level 3U provides global subskin sea surface temperature data from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) onboard the GCOM-W satellite. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the instrument in May 2012, and Remote Sensing Systems processes the data for the Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature Project. The dataset includes both near-real-time products available within 3 hours of recording and final archive-quality products.

Use Cases

• Modeling climate and water cycle variations based on long-term global SST observations.
• Monitoring near-real-time ocean temperature changes for operational forecasting based on data available within 3 hours.
• Validating other sea surface temperature products based on microwave emission measurements from a 1450 km swath.
• Analyzing global coverage patterns based on data acquired with over 99% Earth coverage every 2 days.

Strengths

• Provides near-real-time data generally available within 3 hours of recording, suitable for timely uses.
• Offers high global coverage, with the instrument acquiring data covering over 99% of the Earth every 2 days.
• Includes final 'v8' archive-quality products processed with NCEP FNL analysis for more accurate SSTs.
• Continues long-term observations from the Aqua/AMSR-E mission, launched in May 2012.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The near-real-time product is not intended to be archive quality, according to the description.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration; data processed by Remote Sensing Systems for the GHRSST Project.

Collection Method

Microwave remote sensing measurements from the AMSR2 instrument on the GCOM-W satellite, with conical scan mechanism.

Time Range

Observations began after the satellite launch on 18 May 2012.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 02:40:32.288873; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage.