NOAA CoastWatch provides sea surface temperature (SST) products derived from NOAA's Polar Operational Environmental Satellites (POES). This data is provided at high resolution (0.0125 degrees) for the North Pacific Ocean. Measurements are gathered by the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) instrument, a multiband radiance sensor carried aboard the NOAA POES satellites.

NOAA CoastWatch provides SST data from NASA's Terra Spacecraft. Measurements are gathered by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) carried aboard the spacecraft.

NOAA CoastWatch distributes chlorophyll-a concentration data from NASA's Aqua Spacecraft. Measurements are gathered by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) carried aboard the spacecraft. The algorithm currently used in processing the water leaving radiance to chlorophyll concentration has not yet been accepted as science quality. In addition, assumptions are made in the atmospheric correction in order to provide the data in a timely manner.

NOAA CoastWatch provides SST data from NASA's Aqua Spacecraft. Measurements are gathered by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) carried aboard the spacecraft.

NOAA CoastWatch provides SST data from NASA's Terra Spacecraft. Measurements are gathered by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) carried aboard the spacecraft.

NOAA CoastWatch provides SST data from NASA's Terra Spacecraft. Measurements are gathered by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) carried aboard the spacecraft.

NOAA CoastWatch provides SST data from NASA's Aqua Spacecraft. Measurements are gathered by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) carried aboard the spacecraft.

NASA distributes Diffuse Attenuation Coefficient at 490 nm Wavelength data from NASA's Aqua satellite. Measurements are gathered by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) carried aboard the spacecraft.

MODIS measures the remote sensing reflectance (Rrs) at 667nm. This can be used to view very high concentrations of phytoplankton in the very surface of the water.

MODIS measures chlorophyll fluorescence, which gives insight into the physiology of phytoplankton in the ocean. When phytoplankton are under stress, the rate at which the fluoresce can be decoupled from the rate of photosynthetic productivity.