MODIS Aqua: Global Sea Surface Temperature from Satellite Thermal IR

NASA's Aqua satellite, launched May 4, 2002, provides global skin sea surface temperature (SST) measurements. The data includes daytime and nighttime observations at 9.26 km spatial resolution, averaged over 8-day periods, derived from 11 and 12 micron thermal infrared channels. This version R2019.0 is produced by the NASA Ocean Biology Processing Group and supersedes the previous v2014.1 release.

Use Cases

• Modeling ocean-atmosphere heat exchange based on global skin SST measurements.
• Tracking long-term sea surface temperature trends and anomalies based on 8-day composite data.
• Validating other satellite or in-situ SST products based on the MODIS thermal IR algorithm.
• Studying diurnal SST variability using the separate day and night SST products mentioned.

Strengths

• Data originates from NASA's authoritative MODIS Aqua satellite, launched on a specific date (May 4, 2002).
• Provides two distinct SST products: a standard skin SST and a lower-uncertainty night-only SST4 from unique mid-IR channels.
• Offers multiple temporal composites including daily, 8-day, monthly, and annual averages.
• Spatial resolution is explicitly defined at 9.26 km for this product.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The SST4 product with lower uncertainty is restricted to nighttime use only due to sun glint.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale statistical modeling.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ocean Biology Processing Group (OBPG).

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing via the MODIS instrument on the Aqua satellite, with L2 pixels binned and mapped to an integerized sinusoidal grid.

Time Range

Coverage likely begins after the Aqua satellite launch in May 2002; specific end date is not provided.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 23:57:10.756502; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global ocean coverage.