Nearing two decades of sea-surface temperatures from MODIS on Terra.

Sea-surface temperature (SST) is an Essential Climate Variable and has the advantage of being a base unit in the International System of Units (SI) that permits calibration traceability to reference standards, thereby ensuring consistent and meaningful assessment of accuracy of SSTs derived from satellite measurements. SST has been retrieved from Terra MODIS radiance measurements throughout the mission in a consistent fashion with continuing assessment of accuracy. MODIS SST is one of the most frequently downloaded data sets from NASA ocean data centers. The entire MODIS data set is being reprocessed using new algorithms that improve the effectiveness of cloud screening and include additional atmospheric corrections for the effects of Saharan dust aerosols. In addition, algorithm developments are underway to improve the SST retrievals at high latitudes. The presentation will summarize the new algorithm developments and the characteristics of the derived SST fields, stressing their contributions to the generation of satellite-derived SST Climate Data Record.