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

Annual nighttime global sea surface temperature (SST) data from NASA's Terra satellite, processed to a 4km spatial grid. The dataset includes skin SST derived from long-wave infrared channels and a lower-uncertainty SST4 product from mid-infrared channels available only at night. It is generated by the NASA Ocean Biology Processing Group and distributed by the Physical Oceanography Data Archive (PO.DAAC).

Use Cases

• Monitoring long-term ocean warming trends based on annual global skin SST composites.
• Studying diurnal temperature variation by comparing nighttime SST4 with daytime SST products.
• Validating and calibrating other satellite or in-situ sea surface temperature measurements.
• Incorporating into climate models as a boundary condition based on spatially gridded L3 data.

Strengths

• Data is sourced from NASA's MODIS instrument on the Terra satellite, launched in 1999.
• Includes a specialized SST4 product with lower uncertainty, derived from unique mid-infrared channels.
• Products are available at a consistent 4.63 km spatial resolution.
• Version R2019.0 supersedes previous releases, indicating algorithm updates.

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 for nighttime observations due to sun glint constraints.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Ocean Biology Processing Group (OBPG), Physical Oceanography Data Archive (PO.DAAC).

Collection Method

Spatially gridded (L3) products generated by binning L2 pixels from the MODIS sensor into an integerized sinusoidal area grid and mapping to an equidistant cylindrical projection.

Time Range

Annual composites are available; specific temporal coverage is not stated in the provided metadata.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 23:55:11.471469; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage of the world's oceans.