Seasonal Mean Sea Surface Temperatures from MODIS Satellite

Seasonal mean sea surface temperatures derived from MODIS satellite imagery for Australian waters. The dataset contains long-term averages for four austral seasons calculated from monthly data spanning July 2002 to December 2017. It was produced by the Australian Ocean Data Network using NASA's SeaDAS software and supported by the National Environmental Science Program.

Use Cases

• Modeling seasonal temperature cycles using winter, spring, summer, and autumn mean SST values.
• Analyzing long-term SST trends across the Australian EEZ using the 15-year time series from 2002-2017.
• Mapping thermal habitats for marine species using the gridded SST data in Celsius degrees.
• Validating ocean climate models with satellite-derived seasonal mean SST observations.

Strengths

• 15-year temporal coverage from July 2002 to December 2017.
• Spatial coverage includes the entire Australian EEZ and surrounding waters.
• Data derived from NASA's MODIS instrument using standardized SeaDAS processing.

Limitations

• Dataset ends in 2017, lacking recent years for current climate analysis.
• No column-level metadata or sample data available for validation.
• Unknown row count and spatial resolution limits assessment of dataset granularity.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network, supported by the National Environmental Science Program Marine Biodiversity Hub.

Collection Method

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

Time Range

July 2002 to December 2017.

Freshness

Data last updated in system on April 4, 2026, but underlying observations end in 2017.

Geography

Australian Exclusive Economic Zone and surrounding waters, including the Southern Ocean.