Determination of sea surface temperatures from microwave and IR data

Microwave measurements from the Nimbus 7 SMMR were used to derive the atmospheric precipitable water, which was then used to obtain the atmospheric correction for use with AVHRR thermal IR measurements to obtain sea surface temperature (SST). The resulting SST's were compared with the NOAA operational sea surface temperature measurements, and the two sets of measurements were found to be in reasonable agreement. The average residuals between the two sets of measurements was 0.15 K with the NOAA operational SST's being slightly greater.