NOAA CoastWatch provides sea surface temperature (SST) products derived from NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES). These products are created by combining three separate images, each created 1-hour apart and retaining the most recent temperature value. Therefore, the near real-time images are updated every three hours. Sea surface temperature products from GOES for the east coast may be browsed and downloaded online, while retrospective data may be obtained from the Comprehensive Large Array-data Stewardship System (CLASS).

GOES SST is determined by applying an algorithm to the level X data. Multispectral information for channels 1, 2, 4 and 5 are used to identify clouds, wind effects, and other factors that may affect the values. In addition, each GOES satellite has its own regression equation.

Validation of these algorithms was performed by comparing GOES-SST retrievals against a quality controlled data set from global drifting and moored buoy SST measurements. Comparisons were performed within one hour and 5km of each other. Results show that the GOES-Buoy SST has a bias of 0.5 degree C with a standard deviation less than 1 degree C. The Binary Data files for GOES-SST contain 8-bit data (0 - 255) using the following criteria:

Value	Use
0	Space
1,3,5	unused
2	Land Mask
4	Cloud Mask
6	Sun Glint Mask
7 - 255	Scaled SST values, where SST(degrees K) = 270.0 degrees K + (0.15 * SSTscaled)