S-MODE MOSES: High-Resolution Airborne Sea Surface Temperature

MOSES, an aerial observing system mounted on a B200 aircraft, collects longwave infrared images to map sea surface temperature at a resolution of several meters. The data, covering approximately 200 km offshore of San Francisco, were gathered during a pilot campaign in October 2021 and an intensive operating period in Fall 2022. This dataset supports research into how short-scale ocean dynamics affect vertical exchanges of physical and biological variables.

Use Cases

• Analyzing sub-mesoscale ocean dynamics based on high-resolution SST maps
• Studying vertical exchange of physical variables based on synoptic SST domains
• Validating satellite-derived SST products based on airborne infrared measurements
• Modeling ocean heat budget based on atmospherically-corrected temperature data

Strengths

• Provides synoptic SST maps covering approximately 200 km
• Offers high-resolution data at several meters from a longwave infrared camera
• Contains data from two distinct field campaigns in 2021 and 2022

Limitations

• Column names and exact row counts are unknown across all sources
• Metadata completeness varies; one source lists no tags, license, or author
• The most recent update date conflicts between sources (2026 vs 2023)

Provenance

Source

Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Dynamics Experiment (S-MODE), Multiscale Observing System of the Ocean Surface (MOSES)

Collection Method

Airborne observations from a B200 aircraft using a longwave infrared camera

Time Range

October 2021 and Fall 2022

Freshness

2026-04-09 22:24:02.463932

Geography

Approximately 300 km offshore of San Francisco, covering a sample domain of approximately 200 km