Abstract
The retrieval of Sea Surface Temperature (SST) from infrared satellite radiometers is a major success of the Oceanography from Space endeavor over several decades. Many applications of the SST fields derived from satellites requires knowledge of the characteristics of the uncertainties in the absolute values of the retrievals. These uncertainties are best determined by comparisons with independent measurements of SST. At the currently demonstrable accuracies, failure to take into account the near-surface temperature gradients introduces a significant contribution to the uncertainty budget attributed to the satellite retrievals. Here we review the approaches of validating SST retrievals using in situ measurements from buoys and radiometers on ships, and present current estimates of the uncertainties in the SSTs derived from several of the commonly used sensors.
