SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE (SST)

CoastObs uses Earth Observation and in situ data to provide an overview of sea surface temperature at extensive regions.

Why is it important?

Sea surface temperature provides fundamental information on the global climate system. SST is an essential parameter in weather forecasting and atmospheric model simulations and is also important for the study of marine ecosystems. SST measurements benefit a wide spectrum of operational applications, including climate and seasonal monitoring/forecasting, military defence operations, validation of atmospheric models, sea turtle tracking, evaluation of coral bleaching, tourism, and commercial fisheries management.

What does CoastObs offer?

CoastObs service provides highly accurate and timely geospatial information for SST maps at a spatial/temporal resolution of 1 km (gap-filled, daily), 300m (daily) or 100m (16 days).

How was the data validated?

SST data is validated by many researchers around the world. Within CoastObs, the 1km gap filled GHRSST data was validated against public in situ data of the Dutch national monitoring agency Rijkswaterstaat, for a location in the Ems estuary in the Wadden Sea.

Case study example: SST map in the coast of Galicia, Spain.

Figure 1. SST map and time series of a selected point in the Galician coastal area.

Limitations

The 300 m and 100 m are available depending on cloud cover, like most of the products. The 1 km data is gap filled by a model and therefore always available.