Because of problems with the design and calibration of the scanning multichannel microwave radiometer (SMMR) on Nimbus 7, sea surface temperature (SST) algorithms had to be developed that corrected for instrument effects. Several stages of this development are reported here. The quality of the SST products from the final version is assessed. Thirty-four months of data have been analyzed; the average SST error is about 1.12 ¿C over the whole globe. The error is smaller in the equatorial region and larger in the northern oceans. The main source of error is due to heating of the SMMR instrument. Specific problems in the design of the instrument are discussed. The details of the SST algorithms are given in an appendix.