The next Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES-M), which will become GOES-12 after it attains its operational orbit, will be launched in summer 2001. For the next ten years starting from this GOES-M, the Imager instrument will be different from previous GOES in several ways. For the retrieval of sea surface temperature (SST), the relevant changes include the substitution of the 12-micron channel with a 13.3-micron channel. A direct impact is that the retrieval algorithm based on the split window technique will no longer be applicable, although at night SST may still be inferred using the 3.9-micron channel. To mitigate through this transition, the 13.3-micron channel must be used to alleviate the difficulties of detecting low cloud without the 12-micron channel, especially at night. During daytime, options exist to estimate SST without the 12-micron channel. For example, attenuation by atmospheric water vapor may be estimated from other satellite measurements or from a numerical weather prediction model; solar contamination may be corrected using a sea surface reflectivity model. These options will be evaluated using current GOES measurements.