SPoRT SST: Global Sea Surface Temperature Analysis

Near-global (80°N to 80°S) sea surface temperature fields are provided twice daily at a 2 km resolution. The dataset composites seven days of satellite data from VIIRS, AVHRR, OSTIA, and Geo-Polar Blended products, applying weighted averaging based on data latency and resolution. It is produced by NASA's SPoRT project for regional weather, maritime, and coastal applications.

Use Cases

• Regional weather forecasting based on high-resolution, twice-daily SST composites.
• Maritime route planning and safety monitoring based on near-global SST fields.
• Coastal ecosystem monitoring and management based on 2 km resolution temperature data.
• Validating oceanographic and climate models based on GHRSST GDS 2.0 compliant data.

Strengths

• High spatial resolution of 2 km derived from multiple satellite sources.
• High temporal frequency with twice-daily updates.
• Adheres to the GHRSST Data Specification (GDS) version 2 format with full netCDF-4 compliance.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific license details are missing or conflicting across platforms.
• The dataset's temporal coverage and update schedule beyond 'twice daily' are not explicitly stated.
• Column names and specific data structure are not provided, limiting precise technical understanding.

Provenance

Source

NASA Short-term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) project at Marshall Space Flight Center.

Collection Method

Composite analysis of VIIRS, AVHRR, OSTIA, and Geo-Polar Blended satellite data products.

Freshness

2026-04-10 03:17:10.800035

Geography

Near-global coverage from 80°N to 80°S.