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Description

Multi-functional Transport Satellites (MTSAT) are a series of geostationary weather satellites operated by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). MTSAT carries an aeronautical mission to assist air navigation, plus a meteorological mission to provide imagery over the Asia-Pacific region for the hemisphere centered on 140 East. The meteorological mission includes an imager giving nominal hourly full Earth disk images in five spectral bands (one visible, four infrared). MTSAT are spin stabilized satellites. With this system images are built up by scanning with a mirror that is tilted in small successive steps from the north pole to south pole at a rate such that on each rotation of the satellite an adjacent strip of the Earth is scanned. It takes about 25 minutes to scan the full Earth's disk. This builds a picture 10,000 pixels for the visible images (1.25 km resolution) and 2,500 pixels (4 km resolution) for the infrared images. The MTSAT-2 (also known as Himawari 7) and its radiometer (MTSAT-2 Imager) was successfully launched on 18 February 2006. For this Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (GHRSST) dataset, skin sea surface temperature (SST) measurements are calculated from the IR channels of the MTSAT-2 Imager full resolution data in satellite projection on a hourly basis by using Bayesian Cloud Mask algorithm at the Office of Satellite and Product Operations (OSPO). L2P datasets including Single Sensor Error Statistics (SSES) are then derived following the GHRSST Data Processing Specification (GDS) version 2.0.

Product Summary

Platforms
MTSAT-2
Instruments
MTSAT 2 Imager
Spatial Extent

N: 79 S: -80 E: 180 W: 64

,

N: 79 S: -80 E: -134 W: -180

Spatial Resolution
4000 Meters x 4000 Meters
Geographic Region
WESTERN PACIFIC OCEAN
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
CARTESIAN
Temporal Extent
2013-08-01 to 2015-12-04
Data Partner
Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA (NASA/JPL/PODAAC)
Concept ID
C2499940520-POCLOUD
Data State
COMPLETE
Number of Files/Granules
17727
Processing Level
2P
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

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). (2014). GHRSST Level 2P Western Pacific Regional Skin Sea Surface Temperature from the Multifunctional Transport Satellite 2 (MTSAT-2) (GDS version 2) [Data set]. NASA Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/GHMT2-2PO02 Date Accessed: 2025-12-15

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 1
aerosol_dynamic_indicator Estimate of the potential for aerosol contamination count byte -128 -127 to 127 0.01
diurnal_warming Estimate of diurnal warming using Gentemann (2003) diurnal warming parameterization Kelvin byte -128 -127 to 127 0.05
dt_analysis Analysis used is NOAAs Real-time Global SST analysis at high resolution (0.083 degree) kelvin byte -128 -127 to 127 0.1
l2p_flags The flags are important to preperly use the data. N/A short 127 127 to -128 -128
lat latitude from McIDAS derived data degrees_north float -3.4028235E+38 -90 to 90 1
lon longitude from McIDAS derived data degrees_east float -3.4028235E+38 -180 to 180 1
probability_of_clear_sky Clear sky probability from Bayesian analysis; non-standard L2P field probability byte -128 -127 to 127 0.0002
quality_level Proximity code defined as : 0 = unprocessed 1 = Cloudy (Clear sky probability < 0.800) 2 = Bad (0.800 <= Clear sky probability < 0.950) 3 = Suspect (0.950 <= Clear sky probability < 0.990) 4 = Acceptable (0.990 <= Clear sky probability < 0.999) 5 = Excellent (0.999 <= Clear sky probability) N/A byte 0 0 to 5 1
satellite_zenith_angle The satellite zenith angle at the time of the SST observation angular_degree byte -128 -90 to 90 1
sea_ice_fraction Fractional sea ice cover from NCEP GFS estimate fraction byte -128 0 to 1 0.01
sea_surface_temperature Skin temperature of the ocean kelvin short -32768 -5000 to 5000 0.01
solar_zenith_angle The solar zenith angle at the time of the SST observation angular_degree byte -128 0 to -76 1
sses_bias Estimated bias based on NOAA bias scheme (contact Andy.Harris@noaa.gov) kelvin byte -128 -127 to 127 0.02
sses_standard_deviation Estimated standard deviation based on NOAA bias scheme (contact Andy.Harris@noaa.gov) kelvin byte -128 -127 to 127 0.01
sst_dtime time plus sst_dtime gives seconds after 00:00:00 UTC January 1, 1981 second short -32768 -32767 to 32767 1
time time in seconds since 1981-01-01 00:00:00 seconds since 1981-01-01 00:00:00 int N/A N/A 1
wind_speed These wind speeds were created by NCEP and represent windows at 10 metres above the sea surface m s-1 byte -128 -127 to 127 1
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