VIIRS: Day/Night Sea Surface Temperature

Suomi-NPP VIIRS Level-2 Regional 11µm Day/Night Sea Surface Temperature (SST) provides near real-time global sea surface temperature derived primarily from thermal infrared observations. The dataset is produced by the Ocean Biology DAAC (OB_DAAC) and is the successor to MODIS for Earth science data product generation. It is used to detect ocean fronts and eddies, monitor marine heatwaves, and drive ecosystem and climate models.

Use Cases

• Detecting ocean fronts and eddies based on SST gradients.
• Monitoring marine heatwaves using time-series temperature anomalies.
• Driving ecosystem and habitat models when paired with chlorophyll-a (chlor_a) and other ocean color variables.
• Providing boundary conditions for biogeochemical and climate analyses.

Strengths

• Provides near real-time (NRT) data, enabling timely monitoring of ocean conditions.
• Includes multiple quality control variables (e.g., bias_sst, qual_sst, stdv_sst) for analysis.
• Derived from the VIIRS instrument, a successor to MODIS with 22 spectral bands.

Limitations

• IR-based SST is sensitive to clouds, aerosols, and diurnal warming, requiring careful flag use.
• Quicklook products use less-than-optimal ancillary data and calibration inputs.
• Key metadata like row count, column list, and specific license details are missing from all sources.

Provenance

Source

Ocean Biology DAAC (OB_DAAC), using data from the Suomi-NPP VIIRS instrument.

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing via thermal infrared observations.

Freshness

Last updated on 2026-04-09 according to nasa_earthdata and datagov.

Geography

Global