MODIS Aqua Satellite Sea Surface Temperature Annual Nighttime 9km Grid

NASA MODIS Aqua Level 3 SST MID-IR Annual 9km Nighttime V2019.0 provides global skin sea surface temperature (SST) data derived from satellite observations. The dataset includes annual averages at a 9.26 km spatial resolution, generated from nighttime mid-infrared (3.95 and 4.05 micron) channels for lower uncertainty. It is produced by the NASA Ocean Biology Processing Group and supersedes the previous v2014.1 datasets.

Use Cases

• Monitoring long-term global ocean warming trends based on annual skin SST averages.
• Validating sea surface temperature models using the lower-uncertainty nighttime SST4 product.
• Studying regional ocean temperature patterns based on the 9.26 km gridded spatial data.
• Analyzing continuity of SST measurements from heritage and current NASA sensors.

Strengths

• Provides two SST products: a skin SST for day/night and a lower uncertainty SST4 product for night.
• Offers data at multiple temporal scales (daily, weekly, monthly, annual) and two spatial resolutions (4.63 km and 9.26 km).
• Data is generated by the NASA Ocean Biology Processing Group with algorithm development by RSMAS, indicating authoritative provenance.

Limitations

• The SST4 product derived from mid-infrared channels can only be used at night due to sun glint.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Spatially gridded (L3) products generated from MODIS Aqua satellite L2 pixels binned into an integerized sinusoidal area grid.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 00:27:32.488401; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global