A global Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (GHRSST) Level 2P data set containing multi-channel Sea Surface Temperature (SST) retrievals derived in real-time from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) level-1B data from the Meteorological Operational-B (MetOp-B) satellite. The SST data in this data set are used operationally in oceanographic analyses and forecasts by the US Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVO). The MetOp satellite program is a European multi-satellite program to provide weather data services for monitoring climate and improving weather forecasts. MetOp-A, MetOp-B and Metop-C were respectively launched on 19 Oct 2006, 17 September 2012 and 7 November 2018. The program was jointly established by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) contributing the AVHRR sensor. 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 micron) and near-infrared (0.9 micron) regions, the third one is located around 4 (3.6) micron, and the last two sample the emitted thermal radiation, around 11 and 12 micron, 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 micron. Typically, the 11 and 12 micron channels are used to derive SST sometimes in combination with the 3.5 micron channel. The swath of the AVHRR sensor is a relatively large 2400 km. All MetOp platforms are sun synchronous and generally view the same earth location twice a day (latitude dependent). The ground native resolution of the AVHRR instruments is approximately 1.1 km at nadir and degrades off nadir. This particular data set is produced from legacy Global Area Coverage (GAC) data that are derived from a sample averaging of the full resolution global AVHRR data. Four out of every five samples along the scan line are used to compute on average value and the data from only every third scan line are processed, yielding an effective 4 km spatial resolution at nadir. The v2.0 is the updated version from current v1.0 with extensive algorithm improvements and upgrades. The major improvements include: 1) Significant changes in contaminant/cloud detection; 2) Increased the spatial resolution from 9 km to 4 km; 3) Updated compliance with GDS2, ACDD 1.3, and CF 1.6; and 4) Removed the dependency on the High-resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder (HIRS) sensor (only available to MetOp-A/B), thus allowing for the consistent inter-calibration and the processing of MetOp-A/B/C data

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 realtime 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 m) using a multispectral algorithm. Atmospheric profiles of water vapor and temperature from a numerical weather prediction model, together with a radiative transfer model, are used to correct the multispectral algorithm for regional and seasonal biases due to changing atmospheric conditions. This product is delivered at full resolution in satellite projection as metagranule corresponding to 3 minutes of acquisition. The product format is compliant with the GHRSST Data Specification (GDS) version 2.

NOAA-20 (N20/JPSS-1/J1) is the second satellite in the US NOAA latest generation Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS). N20 was launched on November 18, 2017. In conjunction with the first US satellite in JPSS series, Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) satellite launched on October 28, 2011, N20 form the new NOAA polar constellation. NOAA is responsible for all JPSS products, including SST from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS). VIIRS is a whiskbroom scanning radiometer, which takes measurements in the cross-track direction within a field of view of 112.56-deg using 16 detectors and a double-sided mirror assembly. At a nominal altitude of 829 km, the swath width is 3,060 km, providing global daily coverage for both day and night passes. VIIRS has 22 spectral bands, covering the spectrum from 0.4-12 um, including 16 moderate resolution bands (M-bands). The L2P SST product is derived at the native sensor resolution (~0.75 km at nadir, ~1.5 km at swath edge) using NOAA's Advanced Clear-Sky Processor for Ocean (ACSPO) system, and reported in 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 27GB/day. In addition to pixel-level earth locations, Sun-sensor geometry, and ancillary data from the NCEP global weather forecast, ACSPO outputs include four brightness temperatures (BTs) in M12 (3.7um), M14 (8.6um), M15 (11um), and M16 (12um) bands, and two reflectances in M5 (0.67um) and M7 (0.87um) bands. The reflectances are used for cloud identification. Beginning with ACSPO v2.60, all BTs and reflectances are destriped (Bouali and Ignatov, 2014) and resampled (Gladkova et al., 2016), to minimize the effect of bow-tie distortions and deletions. SSTs are retrieved from destriped BTs. SSTs are derived from BTs using the Multi-Channel SST (MCSST; night) and Non-Linear SST (NLSST; day) algorithms (Petrenko et al., 2014). ACSPO clear-sky mask (ACSM) is provided in each pixel as part of variable l2p_flags, which also includes day/night, land, ice, twilight, and glint flags (Petrenko et al., 2010). Fill values are reported in all pixels with >5 km inland. For each valid water pixel (defined as ocean, sea, lake or river, and up to 5 km inland), four BTs in M12/14/15/16 (included for those users interested in direct "radiance assimilation", e.g., NOAA NCEP, NASA GMAO, ECMWF) and two refelctances in M5/7 are reported, along with derived SST. Other variables include NCEP wind speed and ACSPO SST minus reference SST (Canadian Met Centre 0.1deg L4 SST; available at https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/CMC0.1deg-CMC-L4-GLOB-v3.0). Only ACSM confidently clear pixels are recommended (equivalent to GDS2 quality level=5). Per GDS2 specifications, two additional Sensor-Specific Error Statistics layers (SSES bias and standard deviation) are reported in each pixel with QL=5. Note that users of ACSPO data have the flexibility to ignore the ACSM and derive their own clear-sky mask, and apply it to BTs and SSTs. They may also ignore ACSPO SSTs, and derive their own SSTs from the original BTs. The L2P product is monitored and validated against quality controlled in situ data provided by NOAA in situ SST Quality Monitor system (iQuam; Xu and Ignatov, 2014), using another NOAA system, SST Quality Monitor (SQUAM; Dash et al, 2010). Corresponding clear-sky BTs are validated against RTM simulation in the Monitoring IR Clear-sky Radiances over Ocean for SST system (MICROS; Liang and Ignatov, 2011). A reduced size (1GB/day), equal-angle gridded (0.02-deg), ACSPO L3U product is also available at https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/VIIRS_N20-OSPO-L3U-v2.61, where gridded L2P SSTs with QL=5 only are reported, and BT layers omitted.

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.

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-18 platform (launched 20 May 2005) 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.

NOAA-20 (hereafter, N20; also known as JPSS-1 or J1 prior to launch) is the second satellite in the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) latest generation Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS). N20 was launched on November 18, 2017. In conjunction with the first US satellite in JPSS series, Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) satellite launched on October 28, 2011, N20 form the new NOAA polar constellation. The ACSPO N20/VIIRS L3U (Level 3 Uncollated) product is a gridded version of the ACSPO N20/VIIRS L2P product available here https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/VIIRS_N20-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).

A Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (GHRSST) global Level 4 sea surface temperature analysis produced daily on a 0.25 degree grid at the NOAA National Climatic Data Center. This product uses optimal interpolation (OI) using data from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) Pathfinder Version 5 time series (when available, otherwise operational NOAA AVHRR data are used), the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS (AMSR-E), and in situ ship and buoy observations. A second similar product is available back to 1981 that includes only in situ and AVHRR Pathfinder data in its analysis. The OI analysis is a daily average SST that is bias adjusted using a spatially smoothed 7-day in situ SST average and is thus tuned to about 0.3 meter. Both day and night satellite fields are independently bias adjusted. More information is available at http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/sst/oi-daily.php

A Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (GHRSST) Level 4 sea surface temperature analysis produced as a retrospective dataset at the JPL Physical Oceanography DAAC using wavelets as basis functions in an optimal interpolation approach on a global 0.25 degree grid. The version 4 Multiscale Ultrahigh Resolution (MUR) L4 analysis is based upon nighttime GHRSST L2P skin and subskin SST observations from several instruments including the NASA Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS (AMSR-E), the JAXA Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 on GCOM-W1, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometers (MODIS) on the NASA Aqua and Terra platforms, the US Navy microwave WindSat radiometer, the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on several NOAA satellites, and in situ SST observations from the NOAA iQuam project. The ice concentration data are from the archives at the EUMETSAT Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility (OSI SAF) High Latitude Processing Center and are also used for an improved SST parameterization for the high-latitudes. The dataset also contains an additional SST anomaly variable derived from a MUR climatology (average between 2003 and 2014). This dataset was originally funded by the NASA MEaSUREs program (http://earthdata.nasa.gov/our-community/community-data-system-programs/measures-projects ) and the NASA CEOS COVERAGE project and created by a team led by Dr. Toshio M. Chin from JPL. It adheres to the GHRSST Data Processing Specification (GDS) version 2 format specifications.

The MetOp First Generation (FG) is a European multi-satellite program jointly established by ESA and EUMETSAT, comprising three satellites, MetOp-A, -B and -C. The primary sensor onboard MetOp-FG, the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer/3 (AVHRR/3) contributed by NOAA, measures Earth emissions and reflectances in 5 out of 6 available bands (centered at 0.63, 0.83, 1.61, 3.7, 11 and 12 microns), in a swath of 2,600km from an 817km altitude. These data are collected in a Full Resolution Area Coverage (FRAC) mode, with pixel size of 1.1km at nadir. Metop-B launched on 17 September 2012 is the second in the MetOp-FG series. The NOAA Advanced Clear-Sky Processor for Ocean (ACSPO) Level 2 Preprocessed (L2P) SST product is derived at the full AVHRR FRAC resolution and reported in 10 minute granules in NetCDF4 format, compliant with the GHRSST Data Specification version 2 (GDS2). Subskin SSTs are derived using the regression Nonlinear SST (NLSST) algorithm, which employs three bands (3.7, 11 and 12 microns) at night and two bands (11 and 12 microns) during the day. The ACSPO AVHRR FRAC L2P product is monitored and validated against quality controlled in situ data, provided by the NOAA in situ SST Quality Monitor system (iQuam; Xu and Ignatov, 2014, https://doi.org/10.1175/JTECH-D-13-00121.1 ), in another NOAA system, SST Quality Monitor (SQUAM; Dash et al, 2010, https://doi.org/10.1175/2010JTECHO756.1 ). SST imagery and clear-sky masking are continuously evaluated, and checked for consistency with other sensors and platforms, in the ACSPO Regional Monitor for SST (ARMS) system. MetOp-A orbital characteristics and AVHRR/3 sensor performance are tracked in the NOAA 3S system (He et al., 2016, https://doi.org/10.3390/rs8040346 ).The L2P Near Real Time (NRT) SST files are archived at PO.DAAC with 3-6 hours latency, and then replaced by the Re-ANalysis (RAN) SST after about 2 months later with identical file names. Two features can be used to identify them: different file name time stamps and netCDF global attribute metadata source=NOAA-NCEP-GFS for NRT and source=MERRA-2 for RAN. A reduced size (0.45GB/day), equal-angle gridded (0.02-deg resolution) ACSPO L3U product is available at https://doi.org/10.5067/GHMTB-3US28

The MetOp First Generation (FG) is a European multi-satellite program jointly established by ESA and EUMETSAT, comprising three satellites, MetOp-A, -B and -C. The primary sensor onboard MetOp-FG, the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer/3 (AVHRR/3) contributed by NOAA, measures Earth emissions and reflectances in 5 out of 6 available bands (centered at 0.63, 0.83, 1.61, 3.7, 11 and 12 microns), in a swath of 2,600km from an 817km altitude. These data are collected in a Full Resolution Area Coverage (FRAC) mode, with pixel size of 1.1km at nadir. Metop-C launched on 7 November 2018 is the third and last in the MetOp-FG series. The NOAA Advanced Clear-Sky Processor for Ocean (ACSPO) Level 2 Preprocessed (L2P) SST product is derived at the full AVHRR FRAC resolution and reported in 10 minute granules in NetCDF4 format, compliant with the GHRSST Data Specification version 2 (GDS2). Subskin SSTs are derived using the regression Nonlinear SST (NLSST) algorithm, which employs three bands (3.7, 11 and 12 microns) at night and two bands (11 and 12 microns) during the day. The ACSPO AVHRR FRAC L2P product is monitored and validated against quality controlled in situ data, provided by the NOAA in situ SST Quality Monitor system (iQuam; Xu and Ignatov, 2014, https://doi.org/10.1175/JTECH-D-13-00121.1 ), in another NOAA system, SST Quality Monitor (SQUAM; Dash et al, 2010, https://doi.org/10.1175/2010JTECHO756.1 ). SST imagery and clear-sky masking are continuously evaluated, and checked for consistency with other sensors and platforms, in the ACSPO Regional Monitor for SST (ARMS) system. MetOp-A orbital characteristics and AVHRR/3 sensor performance are tracked in the NOAA 3S system (He et al., 2016, https://doi.org/10.3390/rs8040346 ).The L2P Near Real Time (NRT) SST files are archived at PO.DAAC with 3-6 hours latency, and then replaced by the Re-ANalysis (RAN) SST after about 2 months later with identical file names. Two features can be used to identify them: different file name time stamps and netCDF global attribute metadata source=NOAA-NCEP-GFS for NRT and source=MERRA-2 for RAN. A reduced size (0.45GB/day), equal-angle gridded (0.02-deg resolution) ACSPO L3U product is available at https://doi.org/10.5067/GHMTC-3US28