Sea surface skin temperature
Quantity in oceanography / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The sea surface skin temperature (SSTskin), or ocean skin temperature, is the temperature of the sea surface as determined through its infrared spectrum (3.7–12 μm) and represents the temperature of the sublayer of water at a depth of 10–20 μm.[1] High-resolution data of skin temperature gained by satellites in passive infrared measurements is a crucial constituent in determining the sea surface temperature (SST).
Since the skin layer is in radiative equilibrium with the atmosphere and the sun, its temperature underlies a daily cycle. Even small changes in the skin temperature can lead to large changes in atmospheric circulation. This makes skin temperature a widely used quantity in weather forecasting and climate science.