MODIS Aqua: Daily Sea Surface Temperature at 4km Resolution

NASA's Aqua satellite, launched May 4, 2002, provides daily skin sea surface temperature measurements globally. The Level 3 products are gridded at 4.63 and 9.26 km spatial resolution, derived from MODIS's 36 spectral bands using both long-wave and mid-infrared algorithms. Data is processed by the NASA Ocean Biology Processing Group and Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

Use Cases

• Monitoring global ocean warming trends based on daily and monthly averaged skin SST products.
• Validating sea surface temperature models based on the dual-algorithm approach (NSST and SST4) described.
• Studying diurnal temperature cycles based on the separate day and night SST observations.
• Analyzing spatial patterns of SST at regional scales based on the 4.63 km gridded data.
• Assessing algorithm performance for continuity with heritage sensors based on the modified nonlinear SST algorithm.

Strengths

• Provides two distinct SST products: a day/night skin SST (NSST) and a night-only SST with lower uncertainty (SST4).
• Data is available at multiple temporal aggregations: daily, weekly (8-day), monthly, and annual.
• Spatial resolution options include both 4.63 km and 9.26 km grids.
• Algorithm development and quality flagging are handled by a specialized team at RSMAS.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The SST4 product, which has lower uncertainty, can only be used at night 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.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 00:27:11.283448; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global