MODIS Aqua Satellite: Annual Nighttime Sea Surface Temperature at 4km Resolution

Annual nighttime sea surface temperature (SST) data derived from NASA's Aqua satellite MODIS sensor, launched on May 4, 2002. The dataset provides spatially gridded (Level 3) global skin SST products at 4.63 km resolution, generated using infrared channels and a modified nonlinear SST algorithm. It is produced by the NASA Ocean Biology Processing Group and algorithm development is led by the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

Use Cases

• Monitoring global ocean warming trends based on annual nighttime skin SST measurements
• Comparing SST algorithm performance based on the two distinct products (NSST and SST4) described
• Studying diurnal temperature variations by pairing this nighttime data with daytime SST products
• Analyzing spatial temperature patterns for climate models based on the 4.63 km gridded data

Strengths

• Provides two distinct SST products (NSST and SST4) for nighttime, with SST4 having lower uncertainty
• Data is available at multiple temporal aggregations (daily, weekly, monthly, annual) and two spatial resolutions (4.63 km and 9.26 km)
• Algorithm development is conducted by a specialized team at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science

Limitations

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

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Spatially gridded (L3) products created by binning L2 pixels from the MODIS sensor on the Aqua satellite into an integerized sinusoidal area grid.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 00:27:11.149098; freshness should be verified

Geography

Global