Overview

NOAA produces CoastWatch MODIS SST products (Daytime 11-12 micron skin temperature) in near-real time from global data collected by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). These products are provisional and currently provided by NOAA on a "best effort" basis. NOAA obtains Level-0 data from NASA GSFC in 5-minute granules. These Level-0 datasets are processed to geolocated, calibrated radiances (Level 1b) and derived MODIS data products (Level 2) using modified versions of NASA MODIS Adaptive Processing System (MODAPS) software. These products are then mapped to the CoastWatch geographic regions and made available online in HDF, PNG, GeoTIFF, and Binary Raster.

More information on MODIS SST data products is available at NASA GSFC Earth Sciences Distributed Active Archive Center (GES DAAC) and the MODIS Ocean Team.

Products generated by NOAA are of operational quality and will likely differ from the same product generated by NASA. Due to the constraint imposed on near-real time generation, NOAA uses ancillary data, predicted ephemerides, and predicted calibration tables. These ancillary data are different than those used in production of the NASA science products, but the resulting products show good agreement with respect to patterns and gradients which are important for operational applications. Additionally, although NOAA strives to implement the most recent, validated versions of MODIS software on its near-real time processing system, it cannot always achieve this objective and may be running a different version than that implemented on NASA's science processing system. Science quality MODIS SST products are available from the NASA GES DAAC.