IMOS SST L3S: Night-Time Sea Surface Temperature Grids for Australia

A 0.02° x 0.02° cylindrical equidistant projected map covers the region 70°E to 170°W, 20°N to 70°S. This product contains six consecutive night-time periods of SSTskin data derived from NOAA AVHRR instruments, with each grid cell representing a weighted 6-night average. Production of this single sensor product ceased in June 2025 due to the decommissioning of NOAA-18.

Use Cases

• Analyze regional ocean temperature trends based on the 6-day night-time average SSTskin data.
• Validate ocean models using the reported 2014 biases of <0.05°C and standard deviations of 0.6°C from buoy matchups.
• Map sea surface temperature anomalies over the Australian region using the 0.02° x 0.02° gridded data.

Strengths

• Grid resolution is specified as 0.02° x 0.02°.
• Data quality is quantified with 2014 biases reported as <0.05°C and standard deviations of 0.6°C.
• Spatial coverage is explicitly defined from 70°E to 170°W, 20°N to 70°S.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Production ceased in June 2025, limiting temporal coverage for current analysis.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Derived from AVHRR instruments on NOAA polar-orbiting satellites.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-05 05:32:57.679310; freshness should be verified.

Geography

70°E to 170°W, 20°N to 70°S