I just finished "re-editing" a manuscript. I was asked why I put a hyphen in between "sea" and surface" for "sea-surface temperature (SST)." I know most of my colleagues do not use a hyphen for SST, because they probably don't care one way or the other. I am glad this colleague cared enough to ask me why.
I am not too old, but I am quite old fashioned when it comes to English writing because I was trained in an old-fashion way I know the answer, but I wanted to find some expert's language as my answer. So, I googled "sea-surface temperature." I was disappointed even wikipedia does not care to have a hyphen for SST
Until I find something better, I will use this web site as my "defense."
"We can use a noun as an adjective when it precedes a noun that it modifies; a mountain bike is a bike designed for riding up mountains. 'Mountain' functions as an adjective modifying the noun 'bike'. The second noun takes the plural form, while the first behaves like an adjective and consequently does not, unless the word is normally used in the plural (sports hall) or refers to people (women footballers).
We use these for well-known things, some can be hyphenated and some are written as one word."
Note that this web site uses a hyphen in between "well" and "known." I like that! Now, you go google "well-known" and see if everyone cares to put the hyphen in between when using it (them) as adjective. A lot, but not everyone