Terra MODIS Regional Daytime Sea Surface Temperature Data

Sea surface temperature data derived from Terra MODIS satellite thermal infrared observations during daytime. The dataset includes variables for SST, bias, standard deviation, quality flags, and reference values. It is produced by the OB_DAAC organization.

Use Cases

• Detect ocean fronts and eddies based on sea surface temperature gradients.
• Monitor marine heatwave events based on SST anomaly detection.
• Drive ecosystem and habitat models when paired with chlorophyll-a and light attenuation data.
• Provide boundary conditions for biogeochemical and climate analyses based on SST fields.

Strengths

• Includes multiple quality control variables such as 'qual_sst' and 'l2_flags'.
• Provides derived uncertainty metrics like 'stdv_sst' (standard deviation).
• The description explicitly notes use cases for pairing with other oceanographic variables like chlor_a and PAR.

Limitations

• The description notes IR-based SST is sensitive to clouds, aerosols, and diurnal warming.
• Row count, file formats, and license information are unknown.
• Column-level documentation beyond the listed geophysical variables is absent.

Provenance

Source

OB_DAAC

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing via the Terra MODIS instrument.

Geography

Regional coverage (implied by title), likely global.