Ten-day mean sea surface temperature (SST), derived from the Japanese Geostationary Meteorological Satellite (GMS) infrared radiation data, have been evaluated seasonally around Australia using buoy and ship data archived by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology for 1979 and 1980. The overall average success rate of the SST acquisition from the satellite is found to be 75 per cent; the maximum and the minimum rates are 86 per cent (October 1979) and 57 per cent (April 1980) respectively. It is shown that an objective analysis scheme can provide useful SST data for the residual 25 per cent of grid-points rejected mainly due to cloudiness. The accuracy of the CMS-derived ten-day mean SST was verified against data from drifting buoys and conventional ships, yielding a mean temperature difference of — 1.2° to + 1.3 °C with a root mean square (RMS) difference of 0.8° to 1.5°C. With the exception of July, the satellite estimates for 1980 were in good agreement with shipborne measurements, that is both the mean temperature and the RMS differences were less than 1.1 °C.
K. Abe (Fri,) studied this question.