GHRSST Regional Blended Sea Surface Temperature Analysis for North America

GHRSST Level 4 RTO Terra MODIS-AMSRE Night North America Regional Blended Sea Surface Temperature Analysis is a daily operational sea surface temperature product from the JPL Physical Oceanography DAAC. It provides a blended analysis on a 0.011-degree grid for the region off North and Central America (62N - 20S, 165W - 30W), combining nighttime skin SST from MODIS Terra and subskin SST from AMSRE. This dataset is one of four unique composites generated from MODIS Aqua/Terra and AMSRE day/night observations.

Use Cases

• Analyzing daily sea surface temperature patterns and anomalies in the North American coastal ocean region.
• Validating and calibrating regional ocean circulation and climate models using satellite-derived SST data.
• Studying diurnal warming effects by comparing this nighttime composite with corresponding daytime products.
• Investigating air-sea heat fluxes and ocean-atmosphere interactions using the high-resolution 0.011-degree grid.
• Supporting fisheries management and marine ecosystem studies by providing operational SST data for habitat analysis.

Strengths

• Provides daily operational data, enabling analysis of short-term ocean temperature variability.
• Blends high-resolution MODIS data (0.011-degree grid) with microwave AMSRE observations for improved coverage.
• Generated from a defined composite of specific sensors (MODIS Terra and AMSRE) using a documented weighting algorithm.
• Cross-platform presence on NASA Earthdata and Data.gov signals its established importance and operational use.

Limitations

• Conflicting last updated dates exist between sources (2012-09-20 and 2026-03-05), casting doubt on data currency.
• Specific column names, row counts, and dataset size are unknown across all provided sources.
• The blended product does not correct for differences between skin and foundation sea surface temperatures.

Provenance

Source

JPL Physical Oceanography DAAC (PO.DAAC) / GHRSST

Collection Method

Produced daily using weighted averages to composite GHRSST L2P skin SST from MODIS Terra and subskin SST from AMSRE.

Time Range

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Freshness

2026-03 05 23:06:21.107813

Geography

Oceans off North and Central America (62N - 20S, 165W - 30W).