MODIS Terra: Sea Surface Temperature Gridded Nighttime Data

Global skin sea surface temperature (SST) products from the NASA Terra satellite's MODIS instrument. The dataset includes 8-day averages at 9.26 km spatial resolution, with a nighttime SST4 product derived from mid-infrared channels. The data is processed by the NASA Ocean Biology Processing Group and archived by JPL's PO.DAAC.

Use Cases

• Monitoring global ocean warming trends based on spatially gridded skin SST measurements.
• Studying diurnal temperature variations by comparing day and night SST products.
• Analyzing SST continuity with heritage sensors based on the modified nonlinear SST algorithm.
• Investigating SST uncertainty at night using the lower-error SST4 product derived from mid-IR channels.

Strengths

• Provides two distinct SST products: a skin SST for day/night and a lower-uncertainty SST4 product for night.
• Offers data at multiple temporal resolutions (daily, 8-day, monthly, annual) and two spatial resolutions (4.63 km and 9.26 km).
• Data is processed by the NASA Ocean Biology Processing Group with algorithm development by RSMAS, indicating authoritative provenance.

Limitations

• The SST4 product is only available at night due to sun glint interference.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Satellite observations from the MODIS instrument on the Terra spacecraft, binned and mapped into grids.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 00:26:27.888688; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global