Himawari-8 Nighttime Sea Surface Temperatures Over Australasia

The Bureau of Meteorology produces Integrated Marine Observing System satellite SST products for the Himawari-8 satellite. This dataset is a regional GHRSST Level 3 collated product on a 0.02-degree grid over the Australasian domain (70E to 190E, 70S to 20N), composed of reprocessed multi-swath SSTskin retrievals from compositing hourly files over the night period. The product format is compliant with the GHRSST Data Specification version 2.

Use Cases

• Modeling regional ocean heat content based on SSTskin retrievals
• Analyzing diurnal temperature variations based on nighttime-only compositing
• Monitoring Australasian marine environments based on the 0.02-degree grid coverage

Strengths

• Data is processed using a Radiative Transfer Model (RTTOV12.3) and Bayesian cloud clearing method
• Product is compliant with the GHRSST Data Specification (GDS) version 2
• Coverage is defined over a specific Australasian domain (70E to 190E, 70S to 20N)

Limitations

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

Provenance

Source

Bureau of Meteorology (Australia) via the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS)

Collection Method

Reprocessed multi-swath SSTskin retrievals from compositing IMOS Himawari-8 hourly L3C files over the night

Geography

Australasian domain (70E to 190E, 70S to 20N)