Sea Surface Temperature Seasonal Variations from MODIS, 2002-2017

Monthly sea surface temperature (SST) images from July 2002 to December 2017 were processed to calculate seasonal standard deviations for Australian waters. The data is derived from MODIS (Aqua) satellite imagery using NASA's SeaDAS software and covers the entire Australian Exclusive Economic Zone and surrounding oceans. This research was supported by the National Environmental Science Program (NESP) Marine Biodiversity Hub.

Use Cases

• Modeling climate change impacts on marine ecosystems based on long-term seasonal temperature variations.
• Analyzing oceanographic processes based on the spatial and temporal patterns of sea surface temperature.
• Validating regional climate models based on satellite-derived temperature data for Australian waters.
• Studying seasonal biodiversity patterns in relation to temperature variability within the Australian EEZ.

Strengths

• Covers a 15-year time range from July 2002 to December 2017.
• Spatial extent includes the entire Australian EEZ and surrounding waters, including the Southern Ocean.
• Derived from MODIS (Aqua) satellite imagery, a consistent and well-calibrated data source.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and file size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

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

Time Range

July 2002 to December 2017

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-25 16:26:02.055199; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australian Exclusive Economic Zone and surrounding waters