MODIS Terra: Annual Nighttime Sea Surface Temperature at 9km Resolution

Annual global sea surface temperature (SST) data from NASA's Terra satellite, launched December 18, 1999. The dataset provides nighttime skin SST measurements at a 9.26 km spatial resolution, derived from mid-infrared channels unique to the MODIS sensor. It is processed by the NASA Ocean Biology Processing Group and distributed by the Physical Oceanography Data Archive (PO.DAAC) as version R2019.0.

Use Cases

• Modeling global ocean heat content based on annual nighttime sea surface temperature averages.
• Analyzing climate variability and trends based on spatially gridded, long-term satellite-derived SST.
• Calibrating or validating other SST measurement systems based on the MODIS mid-infrared (SST4) algorithm mentioned in the description.
• Studying diurnal temperature cycles by comparing the described nighttime SST4 product with daytime SST products.

Strengths

• Data is sourced from NASA's MODIS instrument on the Terra satellite, an authoritative platform for Earth observation.
• Provides a lower-uncertainty SST product (SST4) derived from unique mid-infrared channels available at night.
• Offers data at a consistent 9.26 km spatial resolution for annual composites.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The mid-infrared SST4 product is only available for nighttime observations due to sun glint, as stated in the description.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA Ocean Biology Processing Group (OBPG)

Collection Method

Spatially gridded (Level 3) products generated by binning Level 2 pixels from the MODIS sensor into an integerized sinusoidal area grid.

Time Range

Annual composites; specific years not stated.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 23:55:24.501075; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global