MODIS Sea Surface Temperature Seasonal Means for Australian Waters, 2002-2017

From July 2002 to December 2017, this dataset provides long-term seasonal means of sea surface temperature (SST) for ocean surface waters. The means are derived from MODIS (Aqua) satellite imagery processed with NASA's SeaDAS software and cover the four austral seasons. It was produced by Geoscience Australia Data with support from the National Environmental Science Program (NESP) Marine Biodiversity Hub.

Use Cases

• Analyze seasonal warming and cooling cycles based on austral season means.
• Model climate change impacts on marine ecosystems based on sea surface temperature trends.
• Validate oceanographic and climate models using satellite-derived temperature data.
• Study the thermal environment of the Australian Exclusive Economic Zone and surrounding waters.

Strengths

• Data spans over 15 years from July 2002 to December 2017.
• Coverage includes the entire Australian EEZ and surrounding waters, including the southern ocean.
• Derived from MODIS (Aqua) satellite imagery using NASA's SeaDAS processing software.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Freshness should be verified as the last update timestamp is in the future (2026-05-14).

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Derived from MODIS (Aqua) satellite images using NASA's SeaDAS software.

Time Range

July 2002 to December 2017

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-14 03:45:08.124116

Geography

Australian Exclusive Economic Zone and surrounding waters (including the southern ocean)