Sea Surface Temperature (8 day - AVHRR, 1981-2006)
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About this dataset
Sea surface temperature is the temperature of the top millimeter of the ocean's surface. Sea surface temperatures influence weather, including hurricanes, as well as plant and animal life in the ocean. Like Earth's land surface, sea surface temperatures are warmer near the equator and colder near the poles. Currents like giant rivers move warm and cold water around the world's oceans. Some of these currents flow on the surface, and they are obvious in sea surface temperature images.
Warm ocean waters help form clouds and affect weather patterns. The sea's surface temperature is also correlated to the availability of tiny ocean plants, called phytoplankton. For all of these reasons scientists monitor the sea's surface temperature. These maps show satellite measurements of the sea's surface temperature for a given day, or for a span of days. These data are collected by an ongoing series of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellites.
Get Data
1. Go here: AVHRR Pathfinder version 5.3 level 3 collated (L3C) global 4km sea surface temperature for 1981-Present
2. Download data from the "Download Data" section in the table.
Related Websites
Further Reading
El Nino
Great, Warm Lakes
A Dangerous Storm Nears the Gulf Coast
Dorian Moves Over Storm Fueling Waters
Credits
Imagery produced by the NASA Earth Observations team using Sea Surface Temperature data from the NOAA/NASA Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) Pathfinder Project.
Federal Geographic Data Committee Geospatial Metadata
View the FGDC Metatdata for Sea Surface Temperature (8 day - AVHRR, 1981-2006)