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Full catalog/L3S_LEO_AM-STAR-v2.80
L3S_LEO_AM-STAR-v2.80·v2.80·dataset

How warm the sea surface is, mid-morning satellites (blended)

GHRSST NOAA/STAR ACSPO v2.80 0.02 degree L3S Dataset from mid-Morning LEO Satellites (GDS v2)
ocean NASA POCLOUD Level 3 netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. How warm the sea surface is worldwide at fine 0.02-degree detail, drawn from mid-morning satellites, reported separately for daytime and nighttime each day.

How it's made. Produced by NOAA by aggregating sea-surface temperature data from the AVHRR sensors on the three mid-morning Metop satellites into a gridded product covering 2006 to the present.

How & where you'd use it. Supports weather forecasting, ocean monitoring, and climate studies; the near-real-time version is available within hours for timely uses.

What's measured

OCEANS › OCEAN TEMPERATURE › SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE › SEA SURFACE SUBSKIN TEMPERATURE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2006-12-01 → ongoing
  • Measured byMETOP-A (AVHRR-3) · METOP-B (AVHRR-3) · METOP-C (AVHRR-3)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • 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

NOAA STAR produces two lines of gridded 0.02 degree super-collated L3S LEO sub-skin Sea Surface Temperature (SST) datasets, one from the NOAA afternoon JPSS (L3S_LEO_PM) satellites and the other from the EUMETSAT mid-morning Metop (L3S_LEO_AM) satellites. The L3S_LEO_AM is derived from three Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) Metop-FG satellites: Metop-A, -B and -C . The Metop-FG satellite program was jointly established by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) under the joint NOAA/EUMETSAT Initial Joint Polar System Agreement, has contributed three Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) sensors capable of collecting and transmitting data in the Full Resolution Area Coverage (FRAC; 1km/nadir) format. The L3S_LEO_AM dataset is produced by aggregating three L3U datasets from MetOp-FG satellites (MetOp-A, -B and -C; all hosted in PO.DAAC) and covers from Dec 2006-present. The L3S_LEO_AM SST dataset is reported in two files per 24-hour interval, daytime and nighttime (nominal Metop local equator crossing times around 09:30/21:30, respectively), in NetCDF4 format, compliant with the GHRSST Data Specification version 2 (GDS2). The Near Real Time (NRT) L3S-LEO data are archived at PO.DAAC with approximately 6 hours latency, and then replaced by the Re-ANalysis (RAN) files about 2 months later, with identical file names. The dataset is validated against quality controlled in situ data, provided by the NOAA in situ SST Quality Monitor system (iQuam; Xu and Ignatov, 2014), and monitored in another NOAA system, SST Quality Monitor (SQUAM; Dash et al, 2010). The L3S SST imagery and local coverage are continuously evaluated, and checked for consistency with other Level 2, 3 and 4 datasets in the ACSPO Regional Monitor for SST (ARMS) system. NOAA plans to include data from other mid-morning platforms and sensors, such as MetOp-SG METImage and Terra MODIS, into L3S_LEO_AM. More information about the dataset can be found under the Documentation and Citation tabs.

Get the data

l3s_leo_am-star-v2.80_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="L3S_LEO_AM-STAR-v2.80",
    version="2.80",
    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.