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CoastWatch
![Example of MESI product [zoomed from global] centered on the Atlantic Ocean.](../sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/2026-03/MESI_v1_multi_global_daily_s20260221_e20260221e8f1.png?itok=9XXZ6a1Z)
The sea surface height team in NOAA’s Laboratory for Satellite Altimetry produces two experimental mesoscale eddy products:
The NOAA Multi-Sensor Level-1 to Level-2 (MSL12) Ocean Color, science quality, multi-sensor 2 km global gap-filled analysis includes chlorophyll-a, Kd(490), and SPM products. These global gap-free data are generated using the data interpolating empirical orthogonal function (DINEOF) method (Liu and Wang, 2023). This product currently uses data from 3 instruments: the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) sensor aboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) satellite, VIIRS on the NOAA-20 satellite, plus the Ocean and Land Colour Instrument (OLCI) on the Sentinel 3A satellite from the Copernicus program of the European Union.
The NOAA Multi-Sensor Level-1 to Level-2 (MSL12) Ocean Color, science quality, multi-sensor global gap-filled analysis includes chlorophyll-a, Kd(490), and SPM products. These global gap-free data are generated using the data interpolating empirical orthogonal function (DINEOF) method (Liu and Wang, 2022). The data that go into this product currently come from 3 instruments: the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) sensor aboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) satellite, VIIRS on the NOAA-20 satellite, plus the Ocean and Land Colour Instrument (OLCI) on the Sentinel 3A satellite from the Copernicus program of the European Union.
VIIRS Sea Ice Concentration, Sea Ice Thickness and Ice Surface Temperature NOAA CoastWatch/OceanWatch/PolarWatch Level 3, Daily and daily 4-day rolling merged, mapped composites in both polar stereographic projections and CW sector mapped for Northern and Southern hemispheres.
VIIRS Ocean Color multi-sensor gap-filled analysis (Level 4) is produced with input from the VIIRS multi-sensor (SNPP + NOAA-20) daily merged chlorophyll and monthly climatology using the DINEOF method of interpolation for gap-filling. The chlorophyll algorithm used is OCI. The NOAA ocean color science team provides the gap-filled data file to NOAA CoastWatch. CoastWatch converts these to the NetCDF product and serves them.
OLCI Sentinel-3A and 3B regional coverage (US coasts of interest, a.k.a. "CONUS" but including Hawaii) Level-3 mapped daily composites of ocean color remote sensing reflectances (Rrs(λ), chlorophyll-a concentration and derived water quality related products including diffuse attenuation coefficient at 490 nm (Kd490), normalized fluorescence line height (NLFH), and total suspended matter (TSM) from the EUMETSAT processing.
OLCI Sentinel-3A and 3B global coverage ocean color including visible remote sensing reflectances and derived parameters such as chlorophyll-a concentration and light attenuation coefficients.
VIIRS Ocean Color multi-sensor (SNPP + NOAA-20) daily merge (Level 3 composite) is produced from the NOAA Multi-Sensor Level 1 to Level 2 processing system (MSL12) near real time processing stream by the NOAA ocean color science team. NOAA CoastWatch converts files to NetCDF and serves them here.
VIIRS Ocean Color multi-sensor gap-filled analysis (Level 4) is produced with input from the VIIRS multi-sensor (SNPP + NOAA-20) daily merged chlorophyll and monthly climatology using the DINEOF method of interpolation for gap-filling. The chlorophyll algoritm used is OCI. The NOAA ocean color science team provides the gap-filled data file to NOAA CoastWatch. CoastWatch converts these to the NetCDF product and serves them.
MBON Seascapes identifies spatially explicit water masses with particular biogeochemical features using a model and satellite-derived measurements. The seascape product is generated as monthly and 8-day composites at 5 km spatial resolution
OLCI true color products are generated from atmospheric corrected rho_s bands. Data are available in mapped 300m regions in near real-time CoastWatch HDF format and are compatible with the CoastWatch Utilities.
True color bands are provided from VIIRS on both S-NPP and NOAA-20 VIIRS spacecraft. These top-of-atmosphere products are generated from the emissive bands (M-bands) for wavelengths corresponding to Red, Green, and Blue and are provided in CoastWatch HDF and PNG daily composite mapped regions
CoastWatch/OceanWatch produces 0.25-degree longitude/latitude Level-3 gridded sea-surface salinity (SSS) daily and 3-day mean datasets by box averaging European Space Agency (ESA) Soil Moisture – Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission’s Microwave Imaging Radiometer with Aperture Synthesis (MIRAS) satellite observations over the global ocean.
