NOAA20/VIIRS: Sea Surface Temperature and Ocean Colour for Australian Waters

Australian waters are covered by this satellite-derived sea surface temperature product from the NOAA20/VIIRS sensor. The data is processed from 11 and 12 micron spectral bands and is temporally and spatially matched to ocean colour products. It is provided by the Australian Ocean Data Network and was last updated in July 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling net primary productivity based on combined sea surface temperature and optical properties.
• Analyzing thermal and biological oceanographic patterns around Australia based on satellite remote sensing.
• Correlating sea surface temperature with chlorophyll-a concentrations based on the matching cloud mask and acquisition time.

Strengths

• Data is contemporaneous with water-leaving radiances used for optical properties, enabling combined analysis.
• The product has a matching cloud mask with associated ocean colour data, improving usability for joint studies.
• Last update timestamp is explicitly provided as 2026-07-10 04:04:21.375710.

Limitations

• The description notes this is not a GHRSST-quality product, suggesting lower accuracy for demanding applications.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network via data_gov_au.

Collection Method

Derived from NOAA20/VIIRS 11 and 12 micron spectral bands using a published algorithm.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-10 04:04:21.375710; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Waters around Australia.