A data set of geophysical fields has been processed at the Goddard Laboratory for Atmospheres from Tiros operational vertical sounder (TOVS) high-resolution infrared sounder 2 (HIRS2) and microwave sounding unit (MSU) radiance observations. The retrieval system is the physically based Pathfinder Path A methodology. The data set currently covers the period 1985--1995. We compare monthly means of TOVS skin temperature Ts and surface air temperature Ta to the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere (TOGA) buoy observations, National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Ts, and the Comprehensive Ocean Atmosphere Data Set (COADS) Ts and Ta, for the time period 1987--1989. We also compare the Ta data to the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) 2 m temperature. The TOVS Ts has a mean cold bias of ≤0.5 K relative to NCEP Ts, while the Ta has a mean cold bias of ≤1.0 K in the tropics relative to both ECMWF and COADS Ta. The bias in the TOVS Ta is largely due to the diurnal sampling of NOAA 10 observations. The bias in the Ts has additional contributions from a possible cool skin effect as well as retrieval errors associated with cloud clearing and accounting for water vapor attenuation and reflected solar radiation. Because of the holistic retrieval of TOVS Ts and Ta, there is a near cancellation of biases due to diurnal sampling and cloud clearing, so that the derived Ts-Ta have higher accuracy than the individual Ts and Ta, and give a more realistic representation of the evolution of known features of the ocean surface circulation than does the COADS. These results indicate that TOVS Ts and Ta may be suitable for climate variability studies involving air-sea interactions. The data set is available on a daily, 5-daily, or monthly mean basis with a spatial resolution of 1¿ by 1¿. ¿ 1998 American Geophysical Union