Sentinel-3A OLCI Level-3: Global Binned Chlorophyll-a Concentration

Global, gridded composites of surface chlorophyll-a concentration produced by the Ocean Biology DAAC. This near real-time data suite provides a snapshot from a single orbit, supporting anomaly detection and ecosystem applications. The activity was informed by the U.S. Government's Satellite Needs Working Group.

Use Cases

• Detecting phytoplankton biomass anomalies based on global chlorophyll-a concentration composites.
• Creating climatologies and time-series analyses for marine ecosystems based on gridded surface data.
• Providing environmental context for fisheries applications by pairing chlorophyll-a data with variables like sea surface temperature and winds.

Strengths

• Data is produced in near real-time, providing a snapshot from a single orbit.
• The dataset is global in scope and gridded for spatial analysis.
• It is designed to pair with other environmental variables like AVW, PAR, Kd(490), SST, and winds.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The description notes retrievals in optically complex coastal and inland waters may carry higher uncertainty.

Provenance

Source

Ocean Biology DAAC (OB_CLOUD), using Sentinel-3A OLCI instrument data.

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing, processed using the best-available combination of ancillary meteorological and ozone data.

Freshness

Near real-time (NRT).

Geography

Global