MODIS Terra: Annual Nighttime Sea Surface Temperature at 4km Resolution

NASA's Terra satellite provides global skin sea surface temperature data derived from MODIS sensor measurements. The dataset includes annual, monthly, weekly, and daily averages at 4.63 km and 9.26 km spatial resolution, with a unique nighttime SST4 product from mid-infrared channels. The Ocean Biology Processing Group generates these Level 3 products, which are distributed by JPL's Physical Oceanography Data Archive.

Use Cases

• Modeling global ocean heat content and climate patterns based on annual skin SST averages.
• Analyzing diurnal SST variability by comparing day and night temperature products.
• Validating SST algorithms from other sensors using the lower-uncertainty nighttime SST4 product.
• Studying regional ocean temperature trends based on spatially gridded data at 4km resolution.

Strengths

• Provides a unique SST4 product derived from mid-infrared channels, which has lower uncertainty.
• Offers data at two spatial resolutions (4.63 km and 9.26 km) and four temporal aggregations (daily, weekly, monthly, annual).
• Algorithm development and quality flagging are handled by a dedicated team at Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

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, Ocean Biology Processing Group

Collection Method

Spatially gridded (L3) products generated from MODIS sensor data binned into an integerized sinusoidal area grid.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 00:26:23.152356; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global