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Description

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 NOAA-19 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. This dataset adheres to the GHRSST Data Processing Specification (GDS) version 2 format specifications.

Product Summary

Platforms
NOAA-20
Instruments
AVHRR-3
Spatial Extent

N: 78.24 S: 23.59 E: 72.97 W: -76.02

Spatial Resolution
0.02 Decimal Degrees x 0.02 Decimal Degrees
Location
BLACK SEA ,
NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
CARTESIAN
Temporal Extent
2013-06-04 to 2013-11-20
Data Partner
Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA (NASA/JPL/PODAAC)
Concept ID
C2491735321-POCLOUD
Data State
COMPLETE
Number of Files/Granules
334
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

OSISAF. (2013). GHRSST Level 3C North Atlantic Regional Subskin Sea Surface Temperature from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on NOAA-19 (GDS2 version) [Data set]. NASA Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/GHN19-3CO02 Date Accessed: 2026-04-12

Documents

Variables

The table below lists the variables contained within a single granule for this dataset. Variables often contain observed or derived geophysical measurements collected from a variety of sources, including remote sensing instruments on satellite and airborne platforms, field campaigns, in situ measurements, and model outputs. The terms variable, parameter, scientific data set, layer, and band have been used across NASA’s Earth science disciplines; however, variable is the designated nomenclature in NASA’s Common Metadata Repository (CMR). Variable metadata attributes such as Name, Description, Units, Data Type, Fill Value, Valid Range, and Scale Factor allow users to efficiently process and analyze the data. The full range of attributes may not be applicable to all variables. Additional information on variable attributes is typically available in the data, user guide, and/or other product documentation.

For questions on a specific variable, please use the Earthdata Forum.

Name Description Units Data Type Fill Value Valid Range Scale Factor Offset
adi_dtime_from_sst Difference in hours between the ADI and SST data hour byte -128 -127 to 127 0.1 N/A
aerosol_dynamic_indicator Estimate of the potential for aerosol contamination count byte -128 0 to 127 0.1 N/A
dt_analysis The difference between this SST and the climatology kelvin byte -128 -127 to 127 0.1 N/A
l2p_flags These flags are important to properly use the data. N/A short N/A 0 to 15 1 N/A
lat geographical coordinates, WGS84 projection degrees_north float N/A -90 to 90 1 N/A
lon geographical coordinates, WGS84 projection degrees_east float N/A -180 to 180 1 N/A
polar_stereographic_proj North Atlantic Regional (NAR) N/A string N/A N/A 1 N/A
quality_level These are the overall quality indicators and are used for all GHRSST SSTs N/A byte -128 0 to 5 1 N/A
satellite_zenith_angle The satellite zenith angle at the time of the SST observations. angular_degree byte -128 -90 to 90 1 N/A
sea_ice_fraction Fractional sea ice cover from OSISAF ice concentration product byte -128 0 to 100 0.01 N/A
sea_surface_temperature Temperature of the subskin of the ocean kelvin short -32768 -300 to 4500 0.01 273.15
solar_zenith_angle The solar zenith angle at the time of the SST observations. angular_degree byte -128 -90 to 90 1 90
sources_of_adi This variable provides a pixel by pixel description of where aerosol optical depth were derived from. N/A byte -128 0 to 2 1 N/A
sses_bias Bias estimate derived using the techniques described at http://www.ghrsst.org/SSES-Description-of-schemes.html kelvin byte -128 -127 to 127 0.01 N/A
sses_standard_deviation Standard deviation estimate derived using the techniques described at http://www.ghrsst.org/SSES-Description-of-schemes.html kelvin byte -128 -127 to 127 0.01 1
sst_dtime time plus sst_dtime gives seconds after 00:00:00 UTC January 1, 1981 seconds int -2147483648 -2147483647 to 2147483647 1 N/A
time includes leap seconds since 1981 seconds since 1981-01-01 00:00:00 int N/A N/A 1 N/A
wind_speed These wind speeds were created by the ECMWF and represent winds at 10 metres above the sea surface m s-1 byte -128 0 to 127 1 N/A
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