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Full catalog/MODIS_TERRA_L3_SST_THERMAL_MONTHLY_4KM_NIGHTTIME_V2019.0
MODIS_TERRA_L3_SST_THERMAL_MONTHLY_4KM_NIGHTTIME_V2019.0·v2019.0·dataset

How warm the sea surface is at night (Terra, monthly, 4 km)

MODIS Terra Level 3 SST Thermal IR Monthly 4km Nighttime V2019.0
ocean NASA POCLOUD Level 3 netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. How warm the sea surface is at night, measured as the temperature of the ocean's thin skin layer, averaged over each month and mapped globally at about 4 km detail.

How it's made. Derived from the MODIS sensor on the Terra satellite using infrared channels; night readings use special mid-infrared bands for lower uncertainty, then gridded into monthly maps.

How & where you'd use it. Supports studying ocean temperature patterns, climate, marine ecosystems, and weather, with a long, consistent record that connects to other NASA temperature sensors.

What's measured

OCEANS › OCEAN TEMPERATURE › SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2000-02-24 → ongoing
  • Measured byTerra (MODIS)
  • 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

Day and night spatially gridded global NASA skin sea surface temperature (SST) products from the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard the Terra satellite. Average daily, weekly (8 day), monthly and annual skin SST products are available at both 4.63 and 9.26 km spatial resolution. Terra was launched by NASA on December 18, 1999, into a sun synchronous, polar orbit with a daylight descending node at 10:30 am, to study the global dynamics of the Earth atmosphere, land and oceans. The MODIS captures data in 36 spectral bands at a variety of spatial resolutions. Two SST products can be present in these files. The first is a skin SST produced for both day and night observations, derived from the long wave IR 11 and 12 micron wavelength channels, using a modified nonlinear SST algorithm intended to provide continuity with SST derived from heritage and current NASA sensors. At night, a second SST product is produced using the mid-infrared 3.95 and 4.05 micron channels which are unique to MODIS; the SST derived from these measurements is identified as SST4. The SST4 product has lower uncertainty, but due to sun glint can only be produced at night. To generate the L3 products the L2 pixels are binned into an integerized sinusoidal area grid (ISEAG) and mapped into an equidistant cylindrical (also known as Platte Carre) projection. Additional projection detailed can be found at https://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/format/ The NASA MODIS L3 SST data products are generated by the NASA Ocean Biology Processing Group (OBPG) Peter Minnett and his team at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS) are responsible for sea surface temperature algorithm development, error statistics and quality flagging. JPL acquires and distributes MODIS ocean L3 SST data from the OBPG as the official Physical Oceanography Data Archive (PO.DAAC) for SST. The R2019 superseded the previous v2014.1 datasets which can be found at https://doi.org/10.5067/MODST-MO4N4

Get the data

modis_terra_l3_sst_thermal_monthly_4km_nighttime_v2019.0_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="MODIS_TERRA_L3_SST_THERMAL_MONTHLY_4KM_NIGHTTIME_V2019.0",
    version="2019.0",
    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.