These files contain NASA produced skin sea surface temperature (SST) products from the Infrared (IR) channels of the Visible and Infrared Imager/Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) onboard the Suomi-NPP satellite. VIIRS is a multi-disciplinary instrument that is also being flown on the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) series of spacecraft, of which NOAA-20 is the first. JPSS is a multi-agency program that consolidates the polar orbiting spacecraft of NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Suomi-NPP is the initial spacecraft in this series, and VIIRS is the successor to MODIS for Earth science data. VIIRS has 22 spectral bands ranging from 412 nm to 12 micron . There are 16 moderate-resolution bands (750m at nadir), 5 image-resolution bands (375 m), and one day-night band (DNB). VIIRS uses on-board pixel aggregation to reduce the growth in size of pixels away from nadir. Two SST products are contained in these files. The first is a skin SST produced separately for day and night observations, derived from the long wave IR 11 and 12 micron wavelength channels, using a modified nonlinear SST algorithm intended to provide continuity of SST products from heritage and current NASA sensors. At night, a second triple channel SST product is generated using the 3.7 , 11 and 12 micron IR channels, identified as SST_triple. Due to the sun glint in the 3.7 micron SST_triple can only be used at night. VIIRS L2P SST data have a 750 spatial resolution at nadir and are stored in ~288 five minute granules per day. Full global coverage is obtained each day. The production of VIIRS NASA L2P SST files is part of the Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (GHRSST) project and is a joint collaboration between the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the NASA Ocean Biology Processing Group (OBPG), and the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS). Researchers at RSMAS were responsible for sea surface temperature algorithm development, error statistics and quality flagging, while the OBPG, as the NASA ground data system, is responsible for the production of VIIRS ocean products. JPL acquires VIIRS ocean granules from the OBPG and reformats them to the GHRSST L2P netCDF specification with complete metadata and is the official Physical Oceanography Data Archive (PO.DAAC) for SST. In mid-August, 2018, the RSMAS involvement in the VIIRS SST project ceased, and the subsequent fields are not maintained.The R2016.2 supersedes the previous v2016.0 datasets which can be found at https://doi.org/10.5067/GHVRS-2PN16

GDS2 Version -The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) was launched on 18 May 2012, onboard the Golbal Change Observation Mission - Water (GCOM-W) satellite developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The GCOM-W mission aims to establish the global and long-term observation system to collect data, which is needed to understand mechanisms of climate and water cycle variations, and demonstrate its utilization. AMSR2 onboard the first generation of the GCOM-W satellite will continue Aqua/AMSR-E observations of water vapor, cloud liquid water, precipitation, SST, sea surface wind speed, sea ice concentration, snow depth, and soil moisture. AMSR2 is a remote sensing instrument for measuring weak microwave emission from the surface and the atmosphere of the Earth. From about 700 km above the Earth, AMSR2 will provide us highly accurate measurements of the intensity of microwave emission and scattering. The antenna of AMSR2 rotates once per 1.5 seconds and obtains data over a 1450 km swath. This conical scan mechanism enables AMSR2 to acquire a set of daytime and nighttime data with more than 99% coverage of the Earth every 2 days. Remote Sensing Systems (RSS, or REMSS), providers of these SST data for the Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (GHRSST) Project, performs a detailed processing of AMSR-E instrument data in two stages. The first stage produces a near-real-time (NRT) product (identified by "rt" within the file name) which is made as available as soon as possible. This is generally within 3 hours of when the data are recorded. Although suitable for many timely uses the NRT products are not intended to be archive quality. "Final" data (currently identified by "v8" within the file name) are processed when RSS receives the atmospheric mode NCEP FNL analysis. The NCEP wind directions are particularly useful for retrieving more accurate SSTs and wind speeds. The final "v8" products will continue to accumulate new swaths (half orbits) until the maps are full, generally within 2 days.

A Group for HIgh Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (GHRSST) dataset for the North Atlantic Region (NAR) from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on the NOAA-19 platform (launched 6 Feb 2009). This particular dataset is produced by the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility (OSI SAF) in France. The AVHRR is a space-borne scanning sensor on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) family of Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellites (POES) having a operational legacy that traces back to the Television Infrared Observation Satellite-N (TIROS-N) launched in 1978. AVHRR instruments measure the radiance of the Earth in 5 (or 6) relatively wide spectral bands. The first two are centered around the red (0.6 micrometer) and near-infrared (0.9 micrometer) regions, the third one is located around 3.5 micrometer, and the last two sample the emitted thermal radiation, around 11 and 12 micrometers, respectively. The legacy 5 band instrument is known as AVHRR/2 while the more recent version, the AVHRR/3 (first carried on the NOAA-15 platform), acquires data in a 6th channel located at 1.6 micrometer. Typically the 11 and 12 micron channels are used to derive sea surface temperature (SST) sometimes in combination with the 3.5 micron channel. The highest ground resolution that can be obtained from the current AVHRR instruments is 1.1 km at nadir. The MetOp-A platform is sun synchronous generally viewing the same earth location twice a day (latitude dependent) due to the relatively large AVHRR swath of approximately 2400 km. The NAR products are SST fields derived from 1km AVHRR data that are re-mapped onto a 0.02 degree equal angle grid. In the processing chain, global AVHRR level 1b data are acquired at Centre de Meteorologie Spatiale (CMS) through the EUMETSAT/EUMETCAST system. A cloud mask is applied and SST is retrieved from the AVHRR infrared (IR) channels by using a multispectral technique. The NOAA-19 SST L3P data are compliant with the Group for High Resolution SST (GHRSST) Data Specification (GDS) version 1.7.

CNR MED Sea Surface Temperature provides daily gap-free maps (L4) at 0.01 deg. x 0.01deg. horizontal resolution over the Mediterranean Sea. The data are obtained from infra-red measurements collected by satellite radiometers and statistical interpolation. It is the CMEMS sea surface temperature nominal operational product for the Mediterranean sea.

A Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (GHRSST) dataset for the Eastern Atlantic Region from the Spinning Enhanced Visible and InfraRed Imager (SEVIRI) on the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG-3) satellites (launched 5 July 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 MSG/SEVIRI. SEVIRI level 1.5 data are acquired at Meteo-France/Centre de Meteorologie Spatiale (CMS) through the EUMETSAT/EUMETCAST system. SST is retrieved from the SEVIRI infrared channels (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. Every 15 minutes slot is processed at full satellite resolution. The operational products are then produced by remapping over a 0.05 degree regular grid (60S-60N and 60W-60E) SST fields obtained by aggregating all 15 minute SST data available in one hour time, and the priority being given to the value the closest in time to the product nominal hour. The product format is compliant with the GHRSST Data Specification (GDS) version 2. Version Description:

A regional Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (GHRSST) Level 2P dataset based on multi-channel sea surface temperature (SST) retrievals generated in real-time from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on the NOAA-19 platform (launched 6 Feb 2009) produced and used operationally in oceanographic analyses and forecasts by the US Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVO). The AVHRR is a space-borne scanning sensor on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) family of Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellites (POES) having a operational legacy that traces back to the Television Infrared Observation Satellite-N (TIROS-N) launched in 1978. AVHRR instruments measure the radiance of the Earth in 5 (or 6) relatively wide spectral bands. The first two are centered around the red (0.6 micrometer) and near-infrared (0.9 micrometer) regions, the third one is located around 3.5 micrometer, and the last two sample the emitted thermal radiation, around 11 and 12 micrometers, respectively. The legacy 5 band instrument is known as AVHRR/2 while the more recent version, the AVHRR/3 (first carried on the NOAA-15 platform), acquires data in a 6th channel located at 1.6 micrometer. Typically the 11 and 12 micron channels are used to derive SST sometimes in combination with the 3.5 micron channel. The NOAA platforms are sun synchronous generally viewing the same earth location twice a day (latitude dependent) due to the relatively large AVHRR swath of approximately 2400 km. The highest ground resolution that can be obtained from the current AVHRR instruments is 1.1 km at nadir. AVHRR data are acquired in three formats: High Resolution Picture Transmission (HRPT), Local Area Coverage (LAC), and Global Area Coverage (GAC). HRPT data are full resolution image data transmitted to a ground stations as they are collected. LAC are also full resolution data, but the acquisition is prescheduled and recorded with an on-board tape recorder for subsequent transmission during a station overpass. GAC data provide daily subsampled global coverage recorded on tape recorders and then transmitted to a ground station. This particular dataset is derived from LAC data. Further binning and averaging of the 1.1 km LAC pixels results in a final dataset resolution of 2.2 km. The coverage of the LAC data can vary but generally contains scenes over the oceans adjacent to Australia and the North Indian Ocean.

The Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS), starting with S-NPP launched on 28 October 2011, is the new generation of the US Polar Operational Environmental Satellites (POES). The Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) is a collaboration between NASA and NOAA. The ACSPO SNPP/VIIRS L3U (Level 3 Uncollated) product is a gridded version of the ACSPO SNPP/VIIRS L2P product available here https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/VIIRS_NPP-OSPO-L2P-v2.61. The L3U output files are 10-minute granules in netCDF4 format, compliant with the GHRSST Data Specification version 2 (GDS2). There are 144 granules per 24hr interval, with a total data volume of 500MB/day. Fill values are reported at all invalid pixels, including pixels with >5 km inland. For each valid water pixel (defined as ocean, sea, lake or river, and up to 5 km inland), the following layers are reported: SSTs, ACSPO clear-sky mask (ACSM; provided in each grid as part of l2p_flags, which also includes day/night, land, ice, twilight, and glint flags), NCEP wind speed, and ACSPO SST minus reference (Canadian Met Centre 0.1deg L4 SST; available at https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/CMC0.1deg-CMC-L4-GLOB-v3.0 ). Only L2P SSTs with QL=5 were gridded, so all valid SSTs are recommended for the users. Per GDS2 specifications, two additional Sensor-Specific Error Statistics layers (SSES bias and standard deviation) are reported in each pixel with valid SST. The ACSPO VIIRS L3U product is monitored and validated against iQuam in situ data (Xu and Ignatov, 2014) in SQUAM (Dash et al, 2010). Version Description:

A Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (GHRSST) dataset for the Eastern Atlantic Region from the Spinning Enhanced Visible and InfraRed Imager (SEVIRI) on the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG-3) satellites (launched 5 July 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 MSG/SEVIRI. SEVIRI level 1.5 data are acquired at Meteo-France/Centre de Meteorologie Spatiale (CMS) through the EUMETSAT/EUMETCAST system. SST is retrieved from the SEVIRI infrared channels (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. Every 15 minutes slot is processed at full satellite resolution. The operational products are then produced by remapping over a 0.05 degree regular grid (60S-60N and 60W-60E) SST fields obtained by aggregating all 15 minute SST data available in one hour time, and the priority being given to the value the closest in time to the product nominal hour. The product format is compliant with the GHRSST Data Specification (GDS) version 2.

A Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (GHRSST) dataset for the North Atlantic Region (NAR) derived from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on the European Meteorological Operational-A (MetOp-A) platform (launched 19 Oct 2006). 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 and SNPP/VIIRS. Global AVHRR level 1b data are acquired at Meteo-France/Centre de Meteorologie Spatiale (CMS) through the EUMETSAT/EUMETCAST system. NAR SNPP/VIIRS level 0 data are acquired through direct readout and converted into l1b at CMS. SST is retrieved from the AVHRR and VIIRS infrared channels using a multispectral algorithm. This product is delivered as four six hourly collated files per day on a regular 2km grid. The product format is compliant with the GHRSST Data Specification (GDS) version 2.

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.