GSSTFM: Global Monthly Surface Turbulent Fluxes at 1x1 Degree Grid

Global satellite-based data on ocean-atmosphere energy exchange, projected to a 1x1 degree grid with monthly temporal resolution. The dataset, produced by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, contains turbulent flux components including latent heat flux, sensible heat flux, and wind stress. It represents an upgraded version (2c) designed to correct temporal artifacts found in earlier releases.

Use Cases

• Modeling oceanic evaporation and fresh water input based on latent heat flux data.
• Analyzing climate variability at monthly and one-degree spatial scales based on the described resolution.
• Studying trends in ocean surface turbulent fluxes based on the intercomparison studies referenced.
• Validating climate models using satellite-derived sensible heat flux and wind stress components.

Strengths

• Data is projected to a global equidistant grid with a 1x1 degree cell size, resulting in 360x180 arrays.
• Represents an upgraded version (2c) with corrected input data to reduce temporal trends in latent heat flux.
• Dataset stewardship is part of a NASA MEaSUREs funded project, indicating a formal production process.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• A finer resolution (0.25 degree) product exists as Version 3, which may supersede this version for some applications.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Satellite-based retrieval and processing from SSM/I sensors, converted to HDF-EOS5 format.

Time Range

Temporal coverage is not explicitly stated, but references data post-year 2000.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 01:48:09.550490; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage.