MODIS Aqua: Monthly Nighttime Sea Surface Temperature at 4km Resolution

NASA MODIS Aqua satellite Level 3 sea surface temperature (SST) data provides spatially gridded global skin SST products. The dataset includes monthly averages at 4.63 km spatial resolution, derived from thermal infrared measurements, with separate products for skin SST (NSST) and a lower uncertainty SST4 product available only at night. Data is processed 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 monthly averaged skin SST data.
• Analyzing diurnal temperature variations by comparing nighttime SST4 and daytime NSST products.
• Studying regional ocean heat content and thermal anomalies using the 4km gridded spatial data.
• Validating climate model predictions against long-term satellite-derived SST records.

Strengths

• Data originates from the NASA MODIS Aqua satellite, a well-established Earth observation platform launched in 2002.
• Includes two distinct SST products (NSST and SST4) derived from different infrared wavelength channels, offering complementary measurements.
• Provides data at multiple temporal aggregations (daily, weekly, monthly, annual) and spatial resolutions (4.63 km and 9.26 km).

Limitations

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

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing via the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard the Aqua spacecraft.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 00:26:46.622893; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global