MODIS Terra: Global Sea Surface Temperature at 9km Resolution

NASA MODIS Terra satellite data provides global skin sea surface temperature (SST) products. The dataset includes monthly nighttime averages at a 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 version R2019 supersedes previous releases.

Use Cases

• Modeling global ocean heat flux based on spatially gridded skin SST measurements.
• Analyzing long-term sea surface temperature trends based on monthly averaged data products.
• Comparing SST retrieval algorithms based on the dual-product structure (SST and SST4).
• Studying diurnal temperature variation by contrasting available daytime and nighttime observations.

Strengths

• Data originates from the NASA MODIS instrument, a well-established scientific sensor.
• Provides two distinct SST products at night, including the lower-uncertainty SST4 derived from unique MODIS channels.
• Spatial resolution is explicitly defined as 9.26 kilometers.
• Dataset is versioned (R2019), indicating managed updates and supersession of prior versions.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and total file size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The SST4 product, noted for lower uncertainty, is only available for nighttime observations.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Satellite observations from the MODIS instrument on the Terra satellite, binned and mapped into gridded Level 3 products.

Time Range

Terra satellite launched December 18, 1999; specific temporal coverage of the dataset is not provided.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 23:53:41.974914; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage, as indicated by 'spatially gridded global' products.