Sea surface temperature

Sea surface temperature, or SST, is the temperature of ocean water near the surface, generally measured somewhere between about 1 millimeter and 20 meters deep depending on the method used. It shapes the atmosphere close to shore by strongly influencing the air masses that pass over it, and the ocean's thermohaline circulation affects average sea surface temperatures across most of the world's oceans. Warm sea surface temperatures can develop and intensify tropical cyclones, which in turn leave a cooler wake behind them as they churn and mix the upper ocean. Because the ocean has absorbed about 90 percent of the extra heat trapped by human caused climate change, global mean sea surface temperature is very likely to have risen by 0.88 degrees Celsius between 1850 to 1900 and 2011 to 2020, with about 0.60 degrees Celsius of that increase occurring since 1980.