SST (5min raw)
ProOne single scan from GOES-19, the weather satellite over the Americas, about every five minutes as it publishes. Every pixel is measured at the same instant with nothing filled in — expect a lot of cloud, and use the 2hr Composite for a fuller picture.
Every 5 minutes: Gulf, East Coast, Baja
More detail
The scan is about four to nine minutes old. RipIQ makes this layer itself, from the GOES-19 satellite's raw readings and NOAA's own cloud check. The time shown on the time slider is the moment the scan was taken.
When a scan finds no clear water at all, no picture is made, so the time slider can have holes. The layer covers the Gulf of America and the East Coast in full, and nearly all of Baja.
Use it to watch water move from one scan to the next, or when you need to know exactly how old the number is.
Trust the position of a break more than the degree figure. After several days of heavy haze or overcast the whole picture can read cold, so check the number against a buoy. It reads the skin of the water, so on a calm sunny afternoon it runs warm against your gauge, which reads about three feet down.
How it relates to the other temperature layers. SST (2hr Composite) combines two hours of these same scans, so it is fuller, but the spots in it are not all the same age. SST (L3 Composite) and SST (L2) are NOAA's hourly maps from the same satellite, one to two hours old. SST (MUR 1 km) is a daily map with the cloud holes filled in by estimate. SST (ACSPO 2km) is a daily nighttime map that leaves cloud blank. Sea Surface Temperature, from HYCOM (U.S. Navy model), is a forecast, not a measurement. All of them share one color scale. For temperature below the surface, use Water Temperature at Depth.
If the colors look wrong after you change settings, reset the range in Layer Settings. The default is 41.9 °F to 91.4 °F.
The numbers
| How often it updates | About every 5 minutes |
| How fresh it usually is | About 4 to 9 minutes, and every pixel is that same age |
| How detailed it is | The satellite's own sample over the Gulf is about 1.5 nautical miles |
| Where it covers | Gulf of America and East Coast in full; nearly all of Baja |
| Goes blank under cloud? | Yes, on purpose, and a lot of it |
| Observed or modeled | Observed, and made by RipIQ from NOAA's satellite readings. Nothing is filled in |
| What you see on screen | Fahrenheit by default, Celsius if you switch. Skin temperature |
Source: a satellite picture from the GOES-19 satellite.