Sea Surface Temperature (SST)

Sea surface temperature, or lake surface temperature, is used to understand how the lake communicates with the Earth’s atmosphere. SST also provides fundamental information on our climate system and the link between broader earth system climate change. It is an essential parameter in predicting weather, modeling the atmosphere, and measuring shifts in our ecosystems. Passive observations are made with infrared (IR) sensors onboard multiple polar-orbiting and geostationary platforms, and microwave sensors onboard polar platforms.

Satellite SST is measured by NOAA’s Advanced Very High Resolution Radar (AVHRR), Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite onboard the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership spacecraft (VIIRS S-NPP), NOAA-20’s Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite sensor (VIIRS NOAA-20), and Meteorological Operational (MetOp) A, B and C satellites. 

Available satellite products for SST:

Great Lakes Surface Environmental Analysis (GLSEA)

The Great Lakes Surface Environmental Analysis (GLSEA) is a digital map of the Great Lakes surface water temperature, with ice cover during the winter months, that is produced daily.

View GLSEA Daily

Lake Surface Temperature Statistics

Great Lakes surface temperature statistics include average GLSEA surface water temperature and long term average surface water temperature compared to current year. The data files cover from 1995 to the current year.

View GLSEA LST

Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR)

The AVHRR SST contains the daytime and nighttime data files that are derived from NOAA15,…, NOAA18, NOAA19, MetOp A and MetOp B. The resolution of the data file is 1.3 km/pixel.

View AVHRR SST

Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS)

The VIIRS SST contains the daytime and nighttime data files that are derived from Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) and NOAA20 satellite. The resolution of the data file is 750 m/pixel.

View VIIRS SST

Advanced Clear Sky Processor L3S SST (ACSPO L3S)

The ACSPO Level 3 Super collate (L3S) SST is the data files that are super collated with the data measured from multi satellites. Currently the measurements are from NPP, NOAA20, MetOp A/B/C. The near future the measurement will include MODIS SST and GOES SST. The resolution of the ACSPO L3S SST is 2 km/pixel (nc format) and 1.3 km/pixel (hdf format).

View ACSPO L3S

ACSPO near real time (NRT) SST

The ACSPO NRT SST contains the data measured from multi satellites including the MetOp A, MetOp B, MetOp C, NPP and NOAA20. The resolutions of the ACSPO NRT SST are 0.75km/pixel (VIIRS) and 2 km (AVHRR).

View ACSPO NRT

ACSPO Daily Merged SST

The product  contains daily merged AVHRR SST that is the blended data from MetOp A/B/C and daily merged VIIRS SST that is the blended data from NPP and NOAA 20. The resolution of the daily merged AVHRR SST are 1 km/pixel (nc format) and 1.3 km/pixel (hdf format). The resolution of the daily merged VIIRS SST are 0.6 km/pixel (nc format) and 1.3 km/pixel (hdf format).

View ACSPO merged

GOES-16 SST

This product is the measurement from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites. The resolution of the GOES-16 SST is 1.6 km/pixel.

View GOES

Contour SST Maps by Port Region

Contour maps of each port region are also hosted on the Great Lakes CoastWatch node and are in near-real time when the satellite passes over the Great Lakes (up to 18 images a day from different satellites).

View contour maps