Status of sea surface temperature L3 products

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arlindo.arriaga
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Status of sea surface temperature L3 products

by arlindo.arriaga » Tue Dec 14, 2021 7:55 am America/New_York

Dear all

I would appreciate if somebody could let me know about the available right documentation on the policy and status of the computation of binned files with sea surface temperature L3 products from MODIS and VIIRS, namely daily and 8 days means, such that I could update my information regarding their future availability.

Thanks for your attention.
Arlindo Arriaga

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Re: Status of sea surface temperature L3 products

by OB.DAAC - SeanBailey » Tue Dec 14, 2021 3:16 pm America/New_York

Arlindo,
Not quite sure what you mean, but I'll take a stab at a response...

The near real-time daily data are available and up-to-date, however the refined data are currently lagging a bit due to an issue that affected a required ancillary data product. Those ancillary data are being regenerated, but it is taking some time. Once those data have been reprocessed and acquired we will process the refined SST.

Typically, the refined SST product is much more timely, but this is an atypical situation. I cannot give an estimate on how long it will be, as we do not control the ancillary data production. I do anticipate it will be quite a while, as the impact of the problem goes back about 6 months.

Regards,
Sean

arlindo.arriaga
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Re: Status of sea surface temperature L3 products

by arlindo.arriaga » Wed Dec 15, 2021 2:44 pm America/New_York

Sean

Thanks for your information. I understand that the refined sea surface temperature products, and so the respective 8-days means, can not be computed for the reason you have clearly explained. I have noticed, however, that all the files with the near real time, binned daily L3 products of SST, NSST, SST4 and SST3 are not available in the data archive after October 2nd, 2021, what means those near real time products are not exactly up-to-date.

Could it be the case that, eventually, some high level decision might have been approved to suspend the computation of sea surface L3 products? Although strange, this doubt comes to my mind because there are no sea surface temperature products at all from VIIRS-JPSS1 - what was a real consequence from high level decisions.

I am thus interested to find the right documentation to get informed on the policy for the computation of the sea surface temperatures products.


I thank you for the kindness of your attention regarding documentation on this matter.
Kind regards
Arlindo Arriaga

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Re: Status of sea surface temperature L3 products

by OB.DAAC - SeanBailey » Thu Dec 16, 2021 12:04 pm America/New_York

Arlindo,
There are NRT daily SST files beyond Oct 2nd. We do not compute the longer temporal products from NRT data, so indeed there are no 8D, monthly, etc. products, and won't be until the ancillary source issue is resolved.

True, there was a decision made by NASA HQ to not fund SST processing from VIIRS on NOAA20 with the previous funding call. However, the PI was funded under the current call to support SST processing for VIIRS on NOAA20, and we are working with the PI to implement this as soon as possible. It will take time, however, to generate the necessary coefficient files.

There is no single authoritative document describing the policies that dictate what data we do or do not produce as there are several science themes for which we support. For VIIRS, it falls under two (for now)...the ROSES (Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences) funded proposals and the NASA mission senior review process. Each of these are renewed on 2-5 year cycles, so changes can occur on that frequency.

Sean

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Re: Status of sea surface temperature L3 products

by arlindo.arriaga » Fri Dec 17, 2021 1:37 pm America/New_York

Sean

I thank you for your kind clarification. The ancillary problem will hopefully be solved soon, so the computation of the sea surface temperature L3 products may then be available again.

Meanwhile I wish you and your team in the OBPG
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Kind regards
Arlindo Arriaga

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