Hi,

I'm interested in obtaining monthly SST data from MODIS-Aqua. Can anyone tell me the scaling equation (or where to find it) necessary to calculate actual SST data from the 0-255 values available in the level 3 HDF files (monthly composites)?

Thanks!
Klaas

The scaling equation, the slope, and intercept are found in the metadata of the monthly SST file.  The metadata is the info that describes the data file.
Here is a command to obtain the metadata:
ncdump -h A20040012004031.L3m_MO_SST_9KM |more

Here is the output of interest to you:

:Scaling = "linear" ;
:Scaling_Equation = "(Slope*l3m_data) + Intercept = Parameter value" ;
:Slope = 0.15000001f ;
:Intercept = -2.f ;
:Data_Minimum = -1.799999f ;
:Data_Maximum = 35.25f;

Hope this helps,
Donna

Hi Donna,

Thank you very much, your information was exactly what I was looking for!