GHRSST Level 4 SPoRT Global Foundation Sea Surface Temperature Analysis (v1.0)

The GHRSST Level 4 SPoRT Global Foundation Sea Surface Temperature Analysis (v1.0) dataset is produced by the by the NASA Short-term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) project to provide continuous high-resolution composited near global (80N – 80S) sea surface temperature fields twice daily at 2 km resolution for regional weather, maritime, and coastal applications.

It was originally a regional L4 dataset based on MODIS Aqua/Terra Level 2 SST inputs. Currently, the SPoRT SST analysis composites seven-days of Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) and Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) satellite L2 SST data, with additional data from OSTIA and Geo-Polar Blended L4 SST products into a single analysis. Two types of weighting are used in the compositing process. One weight is for the data latency and the other for the product type and spatial resolution. The VIIRS and AVHRR data, being at 750m and 1km resolution respectively, are given the most weight, while the L4 datasets are given weaker weights.

This SPoRT SST dataset adheres to the GHRSST Data Specification (GDS) version 2 format specifications with full netCDF-4 and metadata compliance. The SPoRT project is funded by NASA and the data produced at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.