MODIS Terra: Global Sea Surface Temperature Monthly 4km Nighttime Data

Global spatially gridded skin sea surface temperature (SST) data from NASA's MODIS instrument on the Terra satellite. The dataset includes monthly averages at a 4.63 km resolution, with a specific nighttime product (SST4) derived from mid-infrared channels for lower uncertainty. It is produced by the NASA Ocean Biology Processing Group and supersedes the previous v2014.1 version.

Use Cases

• Monitoring long-term ocean warming trends based on monthly global SST averages.
• Studying diurnal temperature cycles by comparing day and night SST products.
• Validating ocean and climate models using the lower-uncertainty nighttime SST4 data.
• Analyzing spatial patterns of sea surface temperature at a 4.63 km resolution.

Strengths

• Provides two distinct SST products: a day/night skin SST and a lower-uncertainty nighttime SST4.
• Offers data at multiple temporal scales: daily, weekly (8-day), monthly, and annual.
• Spatial resolution is specified as 4.63 km and 9.26 km.
• Dataset is versioned (V2019.0) and supersedes a previous release, indicating curation.

Limitations

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

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Data captured by the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard the Terra satellite, processed into Level 3 gridded products.

Time Range

Temporal coverage is not explicitly stated, but Terra was launched in 1999.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 23:54:58.140379; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage.