MODIS Terra: Global Sea Surface Temperature Satellite Data

NASA's Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard the Terra satellite provides spatially gridded global skin sea surface temperature (SST) products. Average daily, weekly, monthly, and annual SST data are available at 4.63 and 9.26 km spatial resolution, derived from thermal infrared and mid-infrared channels. The data is processed by the NASA Ocean Biology Processing Group and distributed by the JPL Physical Oceanography Data Archive.

Use Cases

• Monitoring global ocean warming trends based on daily, weekly, monthly, and annual SST averages.
• Comparing daytime skin SST with nighttime SST4 product for algorithm validation.
• Analyzing spatial patterns of sea surface temperature at 4.63 km resolution.
• Studying long-term climate dynamics using data from the Terra satellite launched in 1999.

Strengths

• Data spans global coverage from NASA's Terra satellite.
• Provides two SST products: skin SST for day/night and SST4 with lower uncertainty at night.
• Offers multiple temporal aggregations: daily, weekly (8-day), monthly, and annual.
• Available at two spatial resolutions: 4.63 km and 9.26 km.

Limitations

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

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing data from the MODIS instrument on the Terra satellite, processed and binned into gridded products.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 00:26:00.171023; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global