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Full catalog/OSTIA-UKMO-L4-GLOB-v2.0
OSTIA-UKMO-L4-GLOB-v2.0·v2.0·dataset

How warm the sea surface is, gap-filled (OSTIA, daily)

GHRSST Level 4 OSTIA Global Foundation Sea Surface Temperature Analysis (GDS version 2)
ocean NASA POCLOUD Level 4 netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. A daily, gap-free map of sea surface temperature across the whole globe at roughly 5-kilometer detail, representing the foundation temperature of the water.

How it's made. Produced daily by the UK Met Office's OSTIA system, which mathematically blends readings from more than 10 satellite sensors plus ships and buoys to fill in cloudy gaps.

How & where you'd use it. Built mainly to feed weather prediction models, and widely used for tracking ocean conditions, marine heat, and climate patterns.

What's measured

OCEANS › SEA ICE › SEA ICE CONCENTRATION › Sea Ice FractionOCEANS › OCEAN TEMPERATURE › SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE › Foundation Sea Surface Temperature

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2006-12-31 → ongoing
  • Measured byGOES-16 (ABI) · TRMM (TMI) · METEOSAT-9 (SEVIRI) · NOAA-20 (AVHRR-3) · BUOYS (DRIFTING BUOYS) · METOP-A (AVHRR-3)
  • 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 daily on an operational basis at the UK Met Office using optimal interpolation (OI) on a global 0.05x0.05 degree grid. The Operational Sea Surface Temperature and Sea Ice Analysis (OSTIA) analysis uses satellite data from over 10 unique sensors that include the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI), the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) imager, the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI), the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Microwave Imager (TMI) and in situ data from ships, drifting and moored buoys. This analysis was specifically produced to be used as a lower boundary condition in Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models. This dataset adheres to the GHRSST Data Processing Specification (GDS) version 2 format specifications and is updated daily with 24-hours nominal latency in a Near Real Time (NRT) mode. UKMO also produces the higher quality reprocessed OSTIA L4 SST using more sensors and data with a biannual latency (https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/OSTIA-UKMO-L4-GLOB-REP-v2.0).

Get the data

ostia-ukmo-l4-glob-v2.0_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="OSTIA-UKMO-L4-GLOB-v2.0",
    version="2.0",
    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.