Our data for Sea Surface Temperature is based on the data from Coral Reef Watch, NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). This page purposes to explain detailed information for the downloadable data.
Example Dataset
Please download a free example dataset and use it in you app or analysis.
Nighttime Ocean Temperature
According to the NOAA page, 5km Sea Surface Temperature (SST) Product is “a measurement of the nighttime ocean temperature at the sea surface, calibrated to 0.2 meters depth.”
URL Expiration
All downloadable URLs expire in 90 days after your order.
Frequency and Update
The frequency is daily. Also, generally, the latest data is usually updated within 1-2 hours after the latest NOAA data is published. According to the NOAA page, “It is updated each afternoon at about 12:00pm U.S. Eastern Time.”
When you see your ordered data first time, you would recognize that the data does not contain the whole data. This is NOT a bug and but the data creation process has not done yet. After the order, the process begins, and then the whole data becomes accessible in several hours. In every 15 minutes, the data is revised in the direction of both the future and in the past.
Data Format
The default format is csv where no single/double quotation marks are used in the file. The rows having only the value of time mean that SSTs are not observed at the point. Also, the geojson format is available, changing the file extension in the provided url from “csv” to “geojson.” Note that the geometry of geojson format is Point.
Example
Column Names / Property Names
| Names | Description | Physical unit / classes | Physical min | Physical max |
| time | Date (UTC). | YYYY-MM-DD 12:00:00 | 2021-01-01 12:00:00 | – |
| lat | Latitude | Decimal | -90 | 90 |
| lon | Longitude | Decimal | -180 | 180 |
| SST | Sea Surface Temperature (Nighttime & 0.2 meters depts) | C° | – | – |
| sea_ice_fraction | Sea Ice Fraction | – | – | – |
Further Details on the Sea Surface Temperatures Data
For further details, concerns such as satellite sensors and data accuracy, please refer the Coral Reef Watch pages on NOAA.