Hull-Mounted Sea Surface Temperatures from Ships of Opportunity

Abstract

The design and deployment of an inexpensive hull temperature sensor and data logger system was undertaken for the purpose of improving the measurement of sea surface temperature (SST) by ship-of-opportunity merchant vessels. The resulting hull sensors and data logger systems were installed on four merchant vessels and one research vessel. A variety of installations tested the effects of placement and insulation on the temperature sensors themselves. The resulting hull SST data were compared with monthly SST analyses using optimal interpolation (OI) as well as with data from the thermosalinograph (TSG) on board the research vessel. The data collected from the hull sensor systems, while being slightly offset from the TSG data (likely due to a TSG calibration problem), were found to be in excellent agreement with the monthly OI data.