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Description

The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) satellite was launched on February 27th, 2014 with the GPM Microwave Imager (GMI) instrument on board. The GPM mission is a joint effort between NASA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and other international partners. In march 2005, NASA has chosen the Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado to build the GMI instrument on the continued success of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite by expanding current coverage of precipitation from the tropics to the entire world. GMI is a dual-polarization, multi-channel, conical-scanning, passive microwave radiometer with frequent revisit times. One of the primary differences between GPM and other satellites with microwave radiometers is the orbit, which is inclined 65 degrees, allowing a full sampling of all local Earth times repeated approximately every 2 weeks. The GPM platform undergoes yaw maneuvers approximately every 40 days to compensate for the sun's changing position and prevent the side of the spacecraft facing the sun from overheating. Today, the GMI instrument plays an essential role in the worldwide measurement of precipitation and environmental forecasting. Sea Surface Temperature (SST) is one of its major products. The GMI data from the Remote Sensing System (REMSS) have been produced using an updated RTM, Version-8. The V8 brightness temperatures from GMI are slightly different from the V7 brightness temperatures; The SST datasets are available in near-real time (NRT) as they arrive, with a delay of about 3 to 6 hours, including the Daily, 3-Day, Weekly, and Monthly time series products.

Product Summary

Platforms
GPM
Instruments
GMI
Spatial Extent

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

Spatial Resolution
0.25 Decimal Degrees x 0.25 Decimal Degrees
Geographic Region
GLOBAL
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
CARTESIAN
Temporal Extent
2014-03-04
Data Partner
Remote Sensing Systems (RSS) ,
Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA (NASA/JPL/PODAAC)
Concept ID
C2036877762-POCLOUD
Data State
ACTIVE
Number of Files/Granules
4288
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

Remote Sensing Systems. (2017). GHRSST Level 3U Global Subskin Sea Surface Temperature from GMI onboard GPM satellite [Data set]. NASA Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/GHGMI-3UR8A 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
cloud_liquid_water non L3U core field kg m-2 byte -128 -127 to 127 0.01
confidence_flag b0:1=within 50km rain, 0.6 dif mwoisst;b1:1=within 100km rain, 0.8 dif mwoisst;b2:1=within 150km ice, 0.6 dif mwoisst;b3:1=more than 5deg dif mwoisst;b4:1=3-sigma test;b5:1=(tmi only) within 150 km of land and 0.6 warmer than mwoisst;b6:1=diurnal estimate > 0.3 warming;b7:1=diurnal estimate > 1.0 warming N/A byte N/A N/A 1
cool_skin non L3U core field K byte -128 -127 to 127 0.01
diurnal_amplitude non L3U core field K byte -128 -127 to 127 0.02
dt_analysis delta SST K byte -128 -127 to 127 0.1
l2p_flags These flags can help use the data N/A short N/A 0 to 2047 1
lat Latitude of retrievals degrees_north float -32768 -89.875 to 89.875 1
lon Longitude of retrievals degrees_east float -32768 -179.875 to 179.875 1
proximity_confidence 1=Bad, data rejected;2=Suspected Bad, data that has any confidence flags bit 0-5 thrown;3=Unprocessed proximity confidence flag, should be Good data;4=Good data N/A byte N/A N/A 1
quality_level This flag can help use the data N/A byte -128 0 to 5 1
rain_rate non L3U core field mm hr-1 byte -128 -127 to 127 0.1
rejection_flag b0:1=rain;b1:1=high wind/sunglint;b2:1=ice;b3:1=near land;b4:1=no data;b5:1=land; N/A byte N/A N/A 1
sea_ice_fraction ftp://eclipse.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/OI-daily-v2/IEEE/YYYY/AVHRR/avhrr-only-v2.YYYYMMDD.gz 1 byte -128 -127 to 127 0.01
sea_surface_temperature Microwave SST = approximately the top 1 milimeter K short -32768 -5000 to 5000 0.01
sses_bias Sensor Specific Bias from in situ SSTs K byte -128 -127 to 127 0.01
sses_standard_deviation Sensor Specific STD from in situ SSTs K byte -128 -127 to 127 0.01
sst_dtime relative time of SST observations second int -32768 0 to 10000 10
time useful to help interpret sst_dtime seconds since 1981-01-01 00:00:00 int N/A N/A 1
water_vapor non L3U core field kg m-2 byte -128 -127 to 127 0.3
wind_speed non L3U core field; wind_speed_lf m s-1 byte -128 -127 to 127 0.2
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