Nayar et al. published reference data for the surface tension of seawater over the salinity range of  and a temperature range of  at atmospheric pressure. The range of temperature and salinity encompasses both the oceanographic range and the range of conditions encountered in thermal desalination technologies. The uncertainty of the measurements varied from 0.18 to 0.37 mN/m with the average uncertainty being 0.22 mN/m.
Nayar et al. correlated the data with the following equation
where  is the surface tension of seawater in mN/m,  is the surface tension of water in mN/m,  is the reference salinity in g/kg, and  is temperature in degrees Celsius.  The average absolute percentage deviation between measurements and the correlation was 0.19% while the maximum deviation is 0.60%.
The International Association for the Properties of Water and Steam (IAPWS) has adopted this correlation as an international standard guideline.