Sea surface temperature over the North Atlantic (MetOp)
What it measures. Sea surface temperature (how warm the ocean is just under the surface) focused on the North Atlantic region, on a fine 2-kilometer grid.
How it's made. Retrieved from infrared channels of the AVHRR instrument on Europe's MetOp-B satellite using a multi-channel method, delivered as four files covering six-hour periods each day.
How & where you'd use it. Supports near-real-time ocean and weather monitoring over the North Atlantic and feeds into larger sea-temperature analyses.
What's measured
Coverage & cadence
- Time span2016-01-06 → ongoing
- Measured byMETOP-B (AVHRR-3)
- Processing levelLevel 3
- Spatial extent-76.02, 13.59, 72.97, 78.24
- 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
A Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (GHRSST) dataset for the North Atlantic Region (NAR) derived from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on the European Meteorological Operational-B (MetOp-B) platform (launched 17 Sep 2012). The European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility (OSI SAF) is producing SST products in near real time from Metop/AVHRR and SNPP/VIIRS. Global AVHRR level 1b data are acquired at Meteo- France/Centre de Meteorologie Spatiale (CMS) through the EUMETSAT/EUMETCAST system. NAR SNPP/VIIRS level 0 data are acquired through direct readout and converted into l1b at CMS. SST is retrieved from the AVHRR and VIIRS infrared channels using a multispectral algorithm. This product is delivered as four six hourly collated files per day on a regular 2km grid. The product format is compliant with the GHRSST Data Specification (GDS) version 2.
Get the data
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc") # free Earthdata Login
results = earthaccess.search_data(
short_name="AVHRR_SST_METOP_B_NAR-OSISAF-L3C-v1.0",
version="1",
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. Official links
- Data Use and Citation Guidelines VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Generic Data Readers VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- GHRSST Global Data Assembly Center VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Sea Surface Temperature measurement description. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- GHRSST Project VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Low Earth Orbiter Sea Surface Temperature Product User Manual VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Documentation on the GDS version 2 format specification VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- HTTPS endpoint for data browse and download GET DATA