MODIS Terra: Global Daily Sea Surface Temperature at 4km Nighttime

NASA's Terra satellite, launched December 18, 1999, provides global skin sea surface temperature (SST) data. The MODIS instrument captures data in 36 spectral bands, and this Level 3 product includes a unique mid-infrared (SST4) measurement with lower uncertainty, available only at night. Data is processed by the NASA Ocean Biology Processing Group and distributed by the Physical Oceanography Data Archive (PO.DAAC).

Use Cases

• Modeling global ocean heat content and climate patterns based on daily, weekly, and monthly averaged skin SST.
• Validating other satellite or in-situ sea surface temperature measurements using the lower-uncertainty nighttime SST4 product.
• Studiating diurnal temperature variation by comparing the available daytime and nighttime SST observations.
• Analyzing long-term sea surface temperature trends from data spanning the Terra satellite's operational lifetime.

Strengths

• Data originates from NASA's MODIS instrument on the Terra satellite, an authoritative source for Earth observation.
• Includes a unique mid-infrared (SST4) product with lower uncertainty for nighttime observations.
• Provides data at multiple temporal aggregations (daily, 8-day, monthly, annual) and two spatial resolutions (4.63 km and 9.26 km).
• Uses a modified nonlinear SST algorithm intended to provide continuity with heritage and current NASA sensors.

Limitations

• The unique SST4 product is only available at night due to sun glint contamination during the day.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and exact file sizes are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Spatially gridded (L3) products generated from Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) L2 pixels, binned and mapped into specific projections.

Time Range

Coverage spans from the Terra satellite's launch in 1999 onward.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 23:55:32.913575; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global ocean coverage.