Dual channel satellite measurements of sea surface temperature

Results from the 11.6γm channel on the Nimbus 5 selective chopper radiometer are presented that show ambiguity in the temperature deficit obtained for any tropical sea surface temperature (s.s.t.). The analysis indicates that to gain an accurate measurement of s.s.t. in the 10–13γm band further information on the water vapour content of the overlying atmosphere is required. A transmission model is used to show that for two channels a linear relation exists between the two apparent surface temperatures and simple algorithms are derived that give s.s.t.s with an accuracy better than 0.3K for vertically‐viewing satellite radiometers. Algorithms giving s.s.t. are derived for both dual wavelength and dual angle‐of‐view techniques and these are compared with those derived by other authors.