Sea Surface Temperature

The sections below contain information on the SST data types; including output attributes, advice on quality and purpose of the data. Click on the pictures for links to the data.

SST provides a major input to weather due to the strong interaction between SST and the atmosphere. As weather patterns change due to the long-term changes in SST, continuous monitoring of SST by satellite is necessary in order to better understand the reasons for changes in the weather patterns and to model future changes in climate, as well as to predict and monitor impacts on the population due to flooding, droughts, etc. The latest version of the ATSR SST time series is shown on the ESA SST CCI website (see
http://esa-sst-cci.org/?q=node/105).

ATSR Multi-mission

  • Format: The main source of ATSR data products is the ESA NRT and Archive Service.
  • Quality:This provides the complete range of data products up to and including ARC_L2P netCDF format
  • Digital Object Identify (DOI): N/A
  • Date of most recent version: Various
  • Access:The ESA service is available to users worldwide via a registration process on their website.

  • Format: NetCDF format.
  • Quality: Accuracy of 0.3K or better. Unlike the ESA service, CEDA does not provide an NRT service
  • Digital Object Identify (DOI): N/A.
  • Date of most recent version: 04 July 2014
  • Access: Available to registered CEDA users, via http download or ftp.
  • ESA SST CCI

  • Format: L3C in NetCDF format
  • Quality: 0.05 degree resolution (compatible with GHRSST L3U) and 1-km (compatible with GHRSST L2P)
  • Digital Object Identify (DOI) number: 10.1002/gdj3.20
  • Date of most recent version: 13/05/2014
  • Access: FTP, CSW, WMS or SUBSETTER
  • ARC

  • Format: compressed netCDF - ARC_L2P or GHRSTT L2P format. (from CEDA)
  • Quality: Better cloud clearing. Reduced regional biases (<0.1K). 0.05K decade stability
  • Digital Object Identify (DOI): N/A
  • Date of most recent version: 6 July 2011
  • Access: Public
  • Supporting data: http://browse.ceda.ac.uk/browse/neodc/arc/doc/v1.1/README.txt

  • Format: Obs4MIPS format (from UoE DataShare)
  • Quality: Global 1 degree resolution monthly average
  • Digital Object Identify (DOI): 10.7488/ds/62
  • Date of most recent version: 17 March 2014
  • Access: Public
  • Supporting data: N/A
  • Two previous sources of SST data were also produced. These are:

    ENVISAT NR & AR Format

  • Format: ENVISAT format (ATS_NR and ATS_AR)
  • Quality: The above datasets are recommended over this set.
  • Digital Object Identify (DOI) number: N/A
  • Date of most recent version: unknown
  • Access: FTP, CSW, WMS or SUBSETTER
  • SADIST Format

  • Format:SADIST (ATSR-1 and ATSR-2 only)
  • Quality: Resolution=1kmx1km, geolocation information included for each pixel
  • Digital Object Identify (DOI):
  • Date of most recent version: 29 May 2009
  • Access: Not currently available for download

  • The Centre for Environmental Data Archival (CEDA) is the archive of the instrument providers, NERC and DECC, and is available exclusively to scientists working on relevant NERC and DECC contracts. CEDA also provides SST data from the shipborne radiometers ISAR and SISTeR.

    For more information on ATSR SST data please contact c.j.merchant@reading.ac.uk.