A global Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (GHRSST) Level 2P dataset based on retrievals from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS). This sensor resides on the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Preparatory Project (NPP) satellite launched on 28 October 2011.
The VIIRS instrument is a a 22-band, multi-spectral scanning radiometer with a 3040-km swath width that builds on the heritage of the MODIS , AVHRR and SeaWIFS sensors for sea surface temperature (SST) and ocean color. For the infrared bands for SST the effective pixel size is 740 meters at nadir and the pixel size variation across the swath is constrained to no more than 1600 meters at the edge of the swath. However, the processing of this dataset aggregates two pixels into one so the resolution is 1500 meters at nadir. This dataset adheres to the GHRSST Data Processing Specification (GDS) version 2 format specifications.