Sea Surface Temperature Data: 6-Day Average from NOAA Satellites

144-hour average sea surface temperature data derived from NOAA polar-orbiting satellite AVHRR instruments. The product covers a region from 70°E to 170°W and 20°N to 70°S, with a 0.02-degree grid resolution. It is provided by the Australian Ocean Data Network (AODN) under a CC-BY-4.0 license.

Use Cases

• Modeling ocean heat flux based on 144-hour average SST values.
• Analyzing regional temperature anomalies based on the 0.02-degree gridded data.
• Validating satellite-derived SST against buoy observations based on described matchup statistics.
• Studying diurnal SST variations based on separate day and night time processing criteria.

Strengths

• Gridded data at a 0.02-degree resolution provides detailed spatial coverage.
• Product incorporates quality filtering, rejecting observations with low wind speeds (<6m/s day, <2m/s night).
• Matchup statistics indicate typical 2014 biases of <0.03°C and standard deviations of 0.6°C.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network (AODN)

Collection Method

Derived from AVHRR instruments on NOAA polar-orbiting satellites.

Time Range

144-hour (6-day) periods

Geography

70°E to 170°W, 20°N to -70°S