MODIS Aqua: Global Sea Surface Temperature Nighttime Monthly 4km Grid

NASA MODIS Aqua Level 3 SST MID-IR Monthly 4km Nighttime V2019.0 provides spatially gridded global skin sea surface temperature (SST) data from the Aqua satellite. The dataset includes a nighttime SST4 product derived from mid-infrared channels unique to MODIS, which likely has lower uncertainty. The data is generated by the NASA Ocean Biology Processing Group and algorithm development is led by Peter Minnett's team at RSMAS.

Use Cases

• Monitoring global ocean warming trends based on monthly skin SST averages.
• Studying diurnal temperature variations by comparing nighttime SST4 with daytime SST products.
• Validating other satellite or model-derived SST data using the MODIS mid-infrared SST4 product.
• Analyzing spatial patterns of sea surface temperature at a 4km resolution for regional climate studies.

Strengths

• Provides a specialized nighttime SST4 product derived from MODIS-specific mid-infrared channels, which the description states has lower uncertainty.
• Data is generated by the authoritative NASA Ocean Biology Processing Group and Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.
• Offers multiple temporal aggregations including daily, weekly, monthly, and annual products.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The SST4 product is limited to nighttime use only due to sun glint, as stated in the description.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing data from the MODIS instrument on the Aqua satellite, processed and gridded by the NASA Ocean Biology Processing Group.

Geography

Global