GHRSST GOES-16 ABI L2P: Sea Surface Temperature for the Americas Region

NOAA's GHRSST GOES-16 ABI L2P dataset provides sea surface temperature (SST) measurements for the Americas region from the GOES-East satellite. The data is derived from the Advanced Baseline Imager using a clear-sky processor and non-linear SST algorithm, producing 24 netCDF4 files per day with a total volume of 0.6GB. It is produced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and was last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Monitoring diurnal sea surface temperature cycles based on 10-minute to 1-hour temporal sampling.
• Assimilating satellite SST observations into numerical weather and ocean prediction models based on the collated L2P product.
• Studying regional ocean heat content and thermal fronts in the Americas region based on 2km nadir spatial resolution.
• Validating and tuning SST retrieval algorithms based on regression against in-situ buoy data from the NOAA iQuam system.
• Analyzing cloud masking and atmospheric correction performance based on included brightness temperatures and reflectance bands.

Strengths

• High temporal resolution, with data collated from 10-minute full disk scans into a 1-hour product.
• Uses five narrow infrared bands from the Advanced Baseline Imager for accurate SST retrieval.
• Regression is tuned against quality-controlled in-situ SSTs from NOAA's iQuam buoy system.
• Data volume is precisely quantified at 0.6GB per day.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Spatial resolution degrades from 2km at nadir to 15km at the edge of the scan.
• The 3.9-micron band was initially excluded, which may affect diurnal cycle characterization.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Satellite-derived measurements from the GOES-16 Advanced Baseline Imager, processed by the NOAA Advanced Clear-Sky Processor for Ocean (ACSPO) system.

Time Range

Coverage begins after the satellite became operational as GOES-East on 18 December 2018.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 02:31:53.764144; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Full Disk area from 15-135°W and 60°S-60°N, with the satellite's permanent position at 75.2°W covering the Americas region.