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Full catalog/AMSR2-REMSS-L2P-v8.2
AMSR2-REMSS-L2P-v8.2·v8.2·dataset

How warm the sea surface is, per pass (AMSR2)

GHRSST Level 2P Global Subskin Sea Surface Temperature version 8.2 (v8.2) from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) by REMSS
ocean NASA POCLOUD Level 2P netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. How warm the sea surface is, measured pass by pass along the satellite's track rather than as a finished map. Because it uses microwaves, it can see through clouds.

How it's made. Derived from the AMSR2 microwave instrument on Japan's GCOM-W satellite by Remote Sensing Systems; this refined Level-2 version is the final, quality-checked product.

How & where you'd use it. Helps monitor ocean temperature with near-complete global coverage every couple of days, supporting climate and water-cycle research and feeding larger ocean datasets.

What's measured

OCEANS › OCEAN TEMPERATURE › SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE › Sub-skin Sea Surface Temperature

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2012-07-02 → ongoing
  • Measured byGCOM-W1 (AMSR2)
  • Processing levelLevel 2P
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsnetCDF-4
  • StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

  • Watch sea-surface temperature and marine heatwaves
  • Spot algal blooms and ocean-colour shifts
  • Support fisheries and coastal monitoring
Official description

This product provides a “Final” (Refined) Level-2 Sea Surface Temperature (SST) (currently identified by "v8.2" within the file name) for the Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (GHRSST) Project, which is derived from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) by Remote Sensing Systems (RSS, or REMSS). AMSR2 was launched on 18 May 2012, onboard the Global Change Observation Mission - Water (GCOM-W) satellite developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The GCOM-W mission aims to establish the global and long-term observation system to collect data, which is needed to understand mechanisms of climate and water cycle variations, and demonstrate its utilization. AMSR2 onboard the first generation of the GCOM-W satellite will continue Aqua/AMSR-E observations of water vapor, cloud liquid water, precipitation, SST, sea surface wind speed, sea ice concentration, snow depth, and soil moisture. AMSR2 is a remote sensing instrument for measuring weak microwave emission from the surface and the atmosphere of the Earth. The antenna of AMSR2 rotates once per 1.5 seconds and obtains data over a 1450 km swath. This conical scan mechanism enables AMSR2 to acquire a set of daytime and nighttime data with more than 99% coverage of the Earth every 2 days. The “Final” SSTs are processed when RSS receives the atmospheric model National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Final Analysis (FNL) Operational Global Analysis. The NCEP wind directions are particularly useful for retrieving more accurate SSTs and wind speeds. The v8.2 supersedes the previous v8a dataset which can be found at https://www.doi.org/10.5067/GHAM2-2PR8A.

Get the data

amsr2-remss-l2p-v8.2_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="AMSR2-REMSS-L2P-v8.2",
    version="8.2",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from POCLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.