Sea Surface Temperature

Monitoring ocean temperature is vital for understanding global climate systems, ocean heat content, and the overall health of marine ecosystems. Crucially, this data helps scientists estimate the heat stress that leads to coral bleaching—a vulnerable state where corals expel their life-sustaining symbiotic algae and turn white.

Derived from earth-orbiting infrared radiometers, this daily global 5km-resolution dataset provides fundamental climate tracking through three distinct analytical layers:

• Sea Surface Temperature (SST): Also known as CoralTemp, this base layer measures daily the night-time absolute ocean temperature at the sea surface, calibrated to a depth of 0.2 meters.
• Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly (SSTA): This layer compares the daily SST value against the long-term historical mean. It identifies areas that are unusually warm (positive anomalies of +1.0 °C or more, indicated by warm colors) and areas that are unusually cool (negative anomalies of -1.0 °C or less, indicated by cold colors).
  
• 7-Day Sea Surface Temperature Trend (SSTT): This layer illustrates the temperature trajectory over the most recent seven days to show active temperature shifts. It uses a color-coded system to display cooling trends (blue to purple), warming trends (yellow to red), and areas with insignificant temperature changes (green).