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Description

A global Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (GHRSST) Level 3 Collated (L3C) dataset derived from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on the European Meteorological Operational-B (MetOp-B) platform (launched 17 Sep 2012). The European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility (OSI SAF) is producing SST products in near real time from Metop/AVHRR. Global AVHRR level 1b data are acquired at Meteo-France/Centre de Meteorologie Spatiale (CMS) through the EUMETSAT/EUMETCAST system. SST is retrieved from the AVHRR infrared channels (3.7, 10.8 and 12.0 micrometer) using a multispectral algorithm. Atmospheric profiles of water vapor and temperature from a numerical weather prediction model, together with a radiatiave transfer model, are used to correct the multispectral algorithm for regional and seasonal biases due to changing atmospheric conditions. This global L3C product is
derived from full resolution AVHRR l1b data that are re-mapped onto a 0.05 degree grid twice daily. The product format is compliant with the GHRSST Data Specification (GDS) version 2.

Product Summary

Platforms
METOP-B
Instruments
AVHRR-3
Spatial Extent

N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180

Spatial Resolution
0.05 Decimal Degrees x 0.05 Decimal Degrees
Geographic Region
GLOBAL
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
CARTESIAN
Temporal Extent
2016-01-06
Data Partner
Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA (NASA/JPL/PODAAC) ,
Satellite Application Facility on Ocean and Sea ice, European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT/OSISAF)
Concept ID
C2036877693-POCLOUD
Data State
ACTIVE
Number of Files/Granules
7183
Processing Level
3
Published
Updated
Science Keywords
Sea Surface Temperature

Citation

Citation is critically important for dataset documentation and discovery. This dataset is openly shared, without restriction, in accordance with the EOSDIS Data Use and Citation Guidance.

Copy Citation

OSISAF. (2016). GHRSST Level 3C Global Subskin Sea Surface Temperature from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on MetOp-B (GDS2 version) [Data set]. NASA Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/GHGMB-3CO02 Date Accessed: 2025-12-14

Documents

Variables

Variables are a set of physical properties whose values determine the characteristics or behavior of something. For example, temperature and pressure are variables of the atmosphere. Parameters and variables can be used interchangeably. Variable level attributes provide individual information for each variable.

The Name in this table is the variable name. Fill value indicates missing or undefined data points in a variable. Valid range is the range of values the variable can store. Scale factor is used to increase or decrease the size of an object and can be used to correct for distortion. For questions on a specific variable, please use the Earthdata Forum.

Name Description Units Data Type Fill Value Valid Range Scale Factor
adi_dtime_from_sst Difference in hours between the ADI and SST data hour byte -128 -127 to 127 0.1
dt_analysis The difference between this SST and the previous day's SST analysis kelvin byte -128 -127 to 127 0.1
l2p_flags These flags are important to properly use the data. N/A short N/A 0 to 15 1
lat geographical coordinates, WGS84 projection degrees_north float N/A -90 to 90 1
lon geographical coordinates, WGS84 projection degrees_east float N/A -180 to 180 1
quality_level These are the overall quality indicators and are used for all GHRSST SSTs N/A byte -128 0 to 5 1
satellite_zenith_angle The satellite zenith angle at the time of the SST observations. angular_degree byte -128 -90 to 90 1
sea_ice_fraction Fractional sea ice cover from OSISAF ice product byte -128 0 to 100 0.01
sea_surface_temperature Temperature of the subskin of the ocean kelvin short -32768 -300 to 4500 0.01
solar_zenith_angle The solar zenith angle at the time of the SST observations. angular_degree byte -128 -90 to 90 1
sources_of_adi This variable provides a pixel by pixel description of where aerosol optical depth were derived from. N/A byte -128 0 to 2 1
sses_bias Bias estimate derived using the techniques described at http://www.ghrsst.org/SSES-Description-of-schemes.html kelvin byte -128 -127 to 127 0.01
sses_standard_deviation Standard deviation estimate derived using the techniques described at http://www.ghrsst.org/SSES-Description-of-schemes.html kelvin byte -128 -127 to 127 0.01
sst_dtime time plus sst_dtime gives seconds after 00:00:00 UTC January 1, 1981 seconds int -2147483648 -2147483647 to 2147483647 1
time includes leap seconds since 1981 seconds since 1981-01-01 00:00:00 int N/A N/A 1
wind_speed These wind speeds were created by the ECMWF and represent winds at 10 metres above the sea surface. m s-1 byte -128 0 to 127 1
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