Tropical Sea Surface Temperature from TRMM Microwave Imager

Microwave measurements from the TRMM satellite provide daily sea surface temperature data for tropical regions between 38°S and 38°N. This dataset, processed by Remote Sensing Systems for GHRSST, uses a 10.7 GHz channel to retrieve subskin SST through cloud cover, a capability not possible with infrared sensors. The data originates from the joint NASA-JAXA mission launched in November 1997.

Use Cases

• Monitoring tropical cyclone heat potential by analyzing SST spatial patterns.
• Validating and calibrating numerical weather prediction and climate models using SST time series.
• Studying diurnal warming cycles in the tropical oceans using the day-to-day observation time changes.
• Analyzing long-term SST trends in the tropics for climate change research.
• Assimilating SST observations into ocean reanalysis products to improve historical ocean state estimates.

Strengths

• Provides SST retrievals through clouds due to microwave frequency (10.7 GHz) transparency.
• Covers a long time series from the satellite launch in November 1997.
• Offers global coverage within the tropical band (38°S to 38°N).
• Data is produced by Remote Sensing Systems using a well-calibrated, versioned algorithm (v7.1a).

Limitations

• Spatial coverage is limited to tropical regions (38°S to 38°N), excluding higher latitudes.
• Conflicting last updated dates exist between sources (2015-01-01 and 2026-03-05), casting uncertainty on data freshness.
• Specific column names, row counts, and data size are unknown from provided sources.

Provenance

Source

Remote Sensing Systems (REMSS) for the Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (GHRSST).

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing via the TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) radiometer, with SST retrieved using an algorithm applied to the 10.7 GHz channel.

Time Range

1997-11-27 (launch) to present, though exact end date is unspecified.

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:40:20.869521

Geography

Global tropical regions between 38 degrees South and 38 degrees North latitude.