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The NOAA Reanalysis (RAN2) Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) Global Area Coverage (GAC) SST from the Advanced Clear Sky Processor for Oceans (ACSPO) retrieval system, L2P

Published by NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce | Catalog Last Checked: August 03, 2026 at 08:06 AM | Dataset Last Updated: July 01, 2022 at 12:00 AM
The 40+ years-long sea surface temperature (SST) dataset from 4 km Global Area Coverage (GAC) data of the Advanced Very High-Resolution Radiometers (AVHRR/2s and/3s) flown aboard ten NOAA satellites (N07/09/11/12/14/15/16/17/18/19) has been created under the NOAA AVHRR GAC SST Reanalysis 2 (RAN2) Project. The L2P data were reprocessed with the NOAA Advanced Clear Sky Processor for Ocean (ACSPO) enterprise SST system. The SST product is reported in the full ~3000 km AVHRR swath: 'subskin' (highly sensitive to true skin SST, but debiased with respect to in situ SST) and 'depth' (a closer proxy for in situ data, but with reduced sensitivity). The reprocessing methodology aims at close consistency of satellite SSTs with in situ SSTs, in an optimal retrieval domain. Long-term orbital and calibration trends were compensated by daily recalculation of regression coefficients using matchups with drifters and tropical moored buoys (supplemented by ships for N07/09), collected within limited time windows centered at the processed day. The night-time Sun impingements on the sensor black body were mitigated by correcting the L1b calibration coefficients. The Earth view pixels contaminated with a stray light were excluded. Massive cold SST outliers caused by volcanic aerosols following three major eruptions were filtered out by a modified, more conservative ACSPO clear-sky mask. The RAN2 SSTs is available in swath L2P, 144 10-min granules per 24 h interval. The RAN2 covers the global ocean more completely and shows reduced regional and temporal biases, improved stability and consistency between different satellites, and in situ SSTs.

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SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE AVHRR AVHRR-2 AVHRR-3 satellite data NOAA-11 NOAA-12 NOAA-14

Complete Metadata
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description The 40+ years-long sea surface temperature (SST) dataset from 4 km Global Area Coverage (GAC) data of the Advanced Very High-Resolution Radiometers (AVHRR/2s and/3s) flown aboard ten NOAA satellites (N07/09/11/12/14/15/16/17/18/19) has been created under the NOAA AVHRR GAC SST Reanalysis 2 (RAN2) Project. The L2P data were reprocessed with the NOAA Advanced Clear Sky Processor for Ocean (ACSPO) enterprise SST system. The SST product is reported in the full ~3000 km AVHRR swath: 'subskin' (highly sensitive to true skin SST, but debiased with respect to in situ SST) and 'depth' (a closer proxy for in situ data, but with reduced sensitivity). The reprocessing methodology aims at close consistency of satellite SSTs with in situ SSTs, in an optimal retrieval domain. Long-term orbital and calibration trends were compensated by daily recalculation of regression coefficients using matchups with drifters and tropical moored buoys (supplemented by ships for N07/09), collected within limited time windows centered at the processed day. The night-time Sun impingements on the sensor black body were mitigated by correcting the L1b calibration coefficients. The Earth view pixels contaminated with a stray light were excluded. Massive cold SST outliers caused by volcanic aerosols following three major eruptions were filtered out by a modified, more conservative ACSPO clear-sky mask. The RAN2 SSTs is available in swath L2P, 144 10-min granules per 24 h interval. The RAN2 covers the global ocean more completely and shows reduced regional and temporal biases, improved stability and consistency between different satellites, and in situ SSTs.
distribution 
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identifier https://data.noaa.gov/waf/NOAA/NESDIS/ncei/accessions/iso/xml/GHRSST-AVHRR_RAN-STAR-L2P.xml
issued 2022-07-01T00:00:00.000+00:00
keyword 
[
  "SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE",
  "AVHRR",
  "AVHRR-2",
  "AVHRR-3",
  "satellite data",
  "NOAA-11",
  "NOAA-12",
  "NOAA-14",
  "NOAA-16",
  "NOAA-18",
  "NOAA-19",
  "NOAA-7",
  "NOAA-9",
  "NOAA Center for Satellite Applications and Research",
  "NOAA Center for Satellite Applications and Research",
  "Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (GHRSST)",
  "World-Wide Distribution",
  "oceanography",
  "DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/STAR > Center for Satellite Applications and Research, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce",
  "GHRSST > Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN TEMPERATURE > SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE",
  "Earth Science > Oceans > Ocean Temperature > Sea Surface Temperature > Sea Surface Subskin Temperature",
  "Ocean - Physical - Sea surface temperature",
  "AVHRR > Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer",
  "AVHRR-2 > Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer-2",
  "AVHRR-3 > Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer-3",
  "NOAA-11 > National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration-11",
  "NOAA-12 > National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration-12",
  "NOAA-14 > National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration-14",
  "NOAA-16 > National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration-16",
  "NOAA-18 > National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration-18",
  "NOAA-19 > National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration-19",
  "NOAA-7 > National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration-7",
  "NOAA-9 > National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration-9",
  "NOAA-11 (ICES code: 3101, 1988-2004)",
  "NOAA-12 (ICES code: 3207, 1991-2007)",
  "NOAA-14 (ICES code: 3277, 1994-2007)",
  "NOAA-16 (ICES code: 33J9, 2000-2014)",
  "NOAA-18 (ICES code: 33WM, 2005-2016)",
  "NOAA-19 (ICES code: 33Y9, 2009-2016)",
  "NOAA-7 (ICES code: 33V2, 1981-1986)",
  "NOAA-9 (ICES code: 33OO, 1984-1998)",
  "GEOGRAPHIC REGION > GLOBAL OCEAN"
]
landingPage https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/contact
language 
[]
license https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
modified 2022-07-01T00:00:00.000+00:00
publisher 
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references 
[
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]
rights otherRestrictions
spatial 180.0,-90.0,-180.0,90.0
temporal 1981-09-01T00:00:00+00:00/2023-01-31T00:00:00+00:00
theme 
[
  "geospatial"
]
title The NOAA Reanalysis (RAN2) Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) Global Area Coverage (GAC) SST from the Advanced Clear Sky Processor for Oceans (ACSPO) retrieval system, L2P

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