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

Daily, weekly, monthly, and annual global sea surface temperature (SST) data from NASA's Terra satellite, launched December 18, 1999. The dataset provides skin SST and a lower-uncertainty nighttime SST4 product at 4.63 and 9.26 km spatial resolution, processed by the NASA Ocean Biology Processing Group. The data is binned into an integerized sinusoidal area grid and mapped into an equidistant cylindrical projection.

Use Cases

• Modeling ocean-atmosphere heat exchange based on daily skin sea surface temperature measurements.
• Analyzing diurnal temperature cycles using separate day and night SST products.
• Studying regional ocean warming trends based on weekly, monthly, and annual averaged SST data.
• Comparing SST retrieval algorithms based on the dual-product structure (skin SST and SST4).

Strengths

• Provides two distinct SST products: a standard skin SST and a lower-uncertainty nighttime SST4 derived from unique MODIS channels.
• Offers multiple temporal aggregations: daily, 8-day, monthly, and annual averages.
• Data is available at two spatial resolutions: 4.63 km and 9.26 km.
• Generated by the authoritative NASA Ocean Biology Processing Group with algorithm development from RSMAS.

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 (NASA) Ocean Biology Processing Group

Collection Method

Spatially gridded (Level 3) products derived from MODIS sensor data on the Terra satellite, binned and mapped into specific projections.

Time Range

Coverage from the Terra satellite's operational life beginning after its 1999 launch.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 23:54:02.887888; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global ocean coverage.