GHRSST NOAA/STAR Himawari-08 AHI: Pacific Ocean Sea Surface Temperature

Pacific Ocean region sea surface temperature (SST) data from the Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI) on the Himawari-8 satellite. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) provides this Level 3 Collated (L3C) product, which is gridded into 1-hour granules compliant with GHRSST GDS2 specifications, with a data volume of 0.2GB per day. It includes layers for SST, clear-sky mask, wind speed, and sensor-specific error statistics.

Use Cases

• Modeling ocean heat content and climate patterns based on hourly gridded sea surface temperature data.
• Validating satellite SST retrievals against in situ data using the reported bias and standard deviation error statistics.
• Analyzing diurnal SST variability in the Pacific Ocean based on the 24 granules available per day.
• Masking cloud-contaminated pixels for clear-sky ocean analysis using the provided ACSPO clear-sky mask layer.

Strengths

• Data is provided in 1-hour temporal granules, offering high temporal resolution for diurnal cycle analysis.
• Includes sensor-specific error statistics (bias and standard deviation) per pixel for uncertainty quantification.
• Compliant with the GHRSST Data Specification version 2 (GDS2), ensuring interoperability with other SST products.
• Monitored and validated against in situ data (iQuam) as referenced in the description.

Limitations

• Data over internal waters (lakes, rivers) may not have enough in situ data for adequate validation.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The dataset description does not specify the exact spatial resolution of the gridded product.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing data from the Himawari-8 AHI sensor, processed into Level 3 Collated (L3C) gridded product.

Time Range

Temporal coverage is not explicitly stated in the provided input.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03 13 02:39:26.918624; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Pacific Ocean region.