Earth Data School
About
Full catalog/GSSTF
GSSTF·v3·dataset

Heat and moisture rising off the ocean surface (daily)

Goddard Satellite-Based Surface Turbulent Fluxes, 0.25 x 0.25 deg, Daily Grid V3 (GSSTF) at GES DISC
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 4
In plain English

What it measures. Daily maps of heat and moisture moving from the ocean surface into the air, on a fine global grid of about 25 km squares.

How it's made. Derived from microwave readings by the SSM/I sensors aboard several DMSP satellites, with daily values from each satellite averaged together into a single combined product.

How & where you'd use it. Used to study how the ocean exchanges energy and water with the atmosphere, which feeds into weather and climate research.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE › SEA LEVEL PRESSUREATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE › SURFACE TEMPERATURE › AIR TEMPERATUREATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE › SURFACE TEMPERATURE › SKIN TEMPERATUREATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE › SURFACE TEMPERATUREATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC WATER VAPOR › WATER VAPOR PROCESSES › EVAPORATIONATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC WATER VAPOR › WATER VAPOR INDICATORS › HUMIDITYATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC WATER VAPOR › WATER VAPOR INDICATORS › TOTAL PRECIPITABLE WATERATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC WATER VAPOR › WATER VAPOR INDICATORS › WATER VAPORATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC WINDS › SURFACE WINDSATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC WINDS › WIND DYNAMICS › TURBULENCEATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC WINDS › WIND DYNAMICS › WIND STRESSATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION › ATMOSPHERIC HEATINGATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION › HEAT FLUXATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION › RADIATIVE FLUX

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span1987-07-09 → 2009-01-01
  • Measured byDMSP (SSM/I)
  • Processing levelLevel 4
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

  • Map air pollutants — NO₂, aerosols, ozone
  • Track greenhouse gases and Earth's energy budget
  • Feed weather and air-quality analysis
Official description

These data are the Goddard Satellite-based Surface Turbulent Fluxes Version-3 (GSSTF3) Dataset recently produced through a MEaSUREs funded project led by Dr. Chung-Lin Shie (UMBC/GEST, NASA/GSFC), converted to HDF-EOS5 format. The stewardship of this HDF-EOS5 dataset is part of the MEaSUREs project. This suite of GSSTF version 3 products is the 0.25x0.25 deg resolution version of the GSSTF 2c collections. It does not contain, however, the "WB" variable - 'lowest 500-m precipitable water' (g/cm**2). This is the Daily (24-hour) product; data are projected to equidistant Grid that covers the globe at 0.25 degree cell size, resulting in data arrays of 1440x720 size. As in previous versions, the daily fluxes have first been produced for each individual available SSM/I satellite tapes (e.g., F08, F10, F11, F13, F14 and F15). Then, the Combined daily fluxes are produced by averaging (equally weighted) over available flux data/files from various satellites. These Combined daily flux data are considered as the "final" GSSTF, Version 3, and are stored in this HDF-EOS5 collection. There are only one set of GSSTF, Version 3, Combined data, "Set1" The "individual" daily flux data files, produced for each individual satellite, are also available in HDF-EOS5, although from different collections: GSSTF_Fxx_3, where Fxx are the individual satellites (F08, F10, etc..) The input data sets used for this recent GSSTF production include the upgraded and improved datasets such as the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) Version-6 (V6) product of brightness temperature [Tb], total precipitable water [W], and wind speed [U] produced by the Wentz of Remote Sensing Systems (RSS), as well as the NCEP/DOE Reanalysis-2 (R2) product of sea skin temperature [SKT], 2-meter air temperature [Tair], and sea level pressure [SLP]. Relevant to this MEaSUREs project, these are converted to HDF-EOS5, and are stored in the GSSTF_NCEP_3 collection. Please use these products with care and proper citations, i.e., properly indicating your applications with, e.g., "using the combined 2001 data file of Set1" or "using the 2001 F13 data file". APPENDIX SET1 --------------- The following list summarizes individual satellites used to produce the Combined SET1. (1) Y1987/: F08/ 1987/07-12: F08 (Note: 1987/12 is filled with missing value due to data scarcity) (2) Y1988/: F08/ 1988/01-12: F08 (3) Y1989/: F08/ 1989/01-12: F08 (4) Y1990: F08/ F10/ 1990/01-12: F08 (Note: F10 started in 1990/12, but N/A due to data scarcity) (5) Y1991/: F08/ F10/ 1991/01-12: F08+F10 (6) Y1992/: F10/ F11/ 1992/01-12: F10+F11 (7) Y1993/: F10/ F11/ 1993/01-12: F10+F11 (8) Y1994/: F10/ F11/ 1994/01-12: F10+F11 (9) Y1995/: F10/ F11/ F13/ 1995/01-12: 01-04: F10+F11 05-12: F10+F11+F13 (10) Y1996/: F10/ F11/ F13/ 1996/01-12: F10+F11+F13 (11) Y1997/: F10/ F11/ F13/ F14/ 1997/01-12: 01-04: F10+F11+F13 05/01-11/14: F10+F11+F13+F14 11/15-12/31: F11+F13+F14 (12) Y1998/: F11/ F13/ F14/ 1998/01-12: F11+F13+F14 (13) Y1999/: F11/ F13/ F14/ 1999/01-12: F11+F13+F14 (14) Y2000/: F11/ F13/ F14/ F15/ 2000/01-12: 01/01-05/16: F11+F13+F14+F15 05/17-12/31: F13+F14+F15 (15) Y2001/: F13/ F14/ F15/ 2001/01-12: F13+F14+F15 (16) Y2002/: F13/ F14/ F15/ 2002/01-12: F13+F14+F15 (17) Y2003/: F13/ F14/ F15/ 2003/01-12: F13+F14+F15 (18) Y2004/: F13/ F14/ F15/ 2004/01-12: F13+F14+F15 (19) Y2005/: F13/ F14/ F15/ 2005/01-12: F13+F14+F15 (20) Y2006/: F13/ F14/ F15/ 2006/01-12: F13+F14 (21) Y2007/: F13/ F14/ F15/ 2007/01-12: F13+F14 (22) Y2008/: F13/ F14/ F15/ 2008/01-12: 01-07: F13+F14 08-12: F13 Special notes: (a) For Y2006, Y2007 and Y2008, the current Combined daily data files do not include the F15 Individual daily data files due to problematic calibration in F15. The Combined daily files will be updated for those three years once an improved set of Individual daily data files are produced using corrected and updated SSM/I F15 input files. (b) The current Combined daily data files are produced with at most 4 combined satellites, i.e., F10, F11, F13 and F14 for May-Nov 1997, and F11, F13, F14 and F15 for Jan-May 2000.

Get the data

gsstf_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="GSSTF",
    version="3",
    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 GES_DISC
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.