Sea surface temperature is one of the most important variables related to the global ocean-atmosphere system. It is a key indicator for climate change and is widely applied to studies of upper ocean processes, to air-sea heat exchange, and as a boundary condition for numerical weather prediction. The importance of SST to accurate weather forecasting of both severe events and daily weather has been increasingly recognized over the past several years. Multiple operational SST products are currently available and are in widespread use. Despite the well-established state of SST measurements, there are still significant weaknesses in the existing products.
The MISST project is making a direct U.S. contribution to the Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment (GODAE) by working within the GODAE High-Resolution SST Pilot Project (GHRSST-PP), initiated by the international GODAE steering team, to coordinate the production of a new generation high-resolution SST.