How warm the sea surface is, gap-free map (MUR, 0.25 deg)
What it measures. A gap-free worldwide map of how warm the sea surface is, on a 0.25-degree grid, including a temperature anomaly showing how each day compares to a long-term average.
How it's made. Built by blending nighttime sea surface temperature readings from many satellites and instruments (microwave, infrared, and others) plus ship and buoy measurements, filling in clouds and gaps to produce a complete map.
How & where you'd use it. Provides a continuous, reliable sea-temperature record for ocean and climate research, weather forecasting, and tracking marine heat and cold events.
What's measured
Coverage & cadence
- Time span2002-08-31 → ongoing
- Measured byAqua (MODIS, AMSR-E) · CORIOLIS (WINDSAT) · Terra (MODIS) · NOAA-19 (AVHRR-3) · BUOYS (DRIFTING BUOYS) · GCOM-W1 (AMSR2)
- Processing levelLevel 4
- 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
A Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (GHRSST) Level 4 sea surface temperature analysis produced as a retrospective dataset at the JPL Physical Oceanography DAAC using wavelets as basis functions in an optimal interpolation approach on a global 0.25 degree grid. The version 4 Multiscale Ultrahigh Resolution (MUR) L4 analysis is based upon nighttime GHRSST L2P skin and subskin SST observations from several instruments including the NASA Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS (AMSR-E), the JAXA Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 on GCOM-W1, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometers (MODIS) on the NASA Aqua and Terra platforms, the US Navy microwave WindSat radiometer, the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on several NOAA satellites, and in situ SST observations from the NOAA iQuam project. The ice concentration data are from the archives at the EUMETSAT Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility (OSI SAF) High Latitude Processing Center and are also used for an improved SST parameterization for the high-latitudes. The dataset also contains an additional SST anomaly variable derived from a MUR climatology (average between 2003 and 2014). This dataset was originally funded by the NASA MEaSUREs program (http://earthdata.nasa.gov/our-community/community-data-system-programs/measures-projects ) and the NASA CEOS COVERAGE project and created by a team led by Dr. Toshio M. Chin from JPL. It adheres to the GHRSST Data Processing Specification (GDS) version 2 format specifications.
Get the data
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc") # free Earthdata Login
results = earthaccess.search_data(
short_name="MUR25-JPL-L4-GLOB-v04.2",
version="4.2",
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. Official links
- Data Use and Citation Guidelines VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature Information VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- MUR Project homepage VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Documentation on the GDS version 2 format specification VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- GHRSST Project website VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Generic data readers VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Homepage for the NASA MEaSUREs projects VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Chin T.M., Milliff R.F., Large W.G. (1998). Basin-scale, high-wavenumber sea surface wind fields from a multiresolution analysis of scatterometer data. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 15: 741-763 VIEW RELATED INFORMATION