4 km NODC/RSMAS AVHRR Pathfinder v5.0 Daily Climatologies (1985-2001) (NCEI Accession 0006682)
The 4 km Pathfinder effort at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) and the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS) is an extension of and improvement on the sea surface temperature (SST) fields from the NOAA/NASA AVHRR Oceans 9km Pathfinder dataset. In this 4 km Pathfinder project, some important shortcomings in the original 9 km data have been corrected, and the entire time series has been reprocessed at the 4 km Global Area Coverage (GAC) level for 1985-2001, the highest resolution possible globally from the current AVHRR series. These SST fields have been averaged daily and archived at the National Oceanographic Data Center.
These SST daily climatologies are available from the NODC as a single dataset of three file groups (day, night, and combined) in Hierarchical Data Format (.HDF). Associated SST 1985-2001 climatologies are archived at the NODC under the following accession numbers: seasonal - 0001658; 5day - 0009534; 7day - 0009535; 8day - 0009536; annual - 0009537; and monthly - 0009538.
These SST daily climatologies are available from the NODC as a single dataset of three file groups (day, night, and combined) in Hierarchical Data Format (.HDF). Associated SST 1985-2001 climatologies are archived at the NODC under the following accession numbers: seasonal - 0001658; 5day - 0009534; 7day - 0009535; 8day - 0009536; annual - 0009537; and monthly - 0009538.
Dataset Citation
- Cite as: Casey, Kenneth S.; US DOC/NOAA > National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (2006). 4 km NODC/RSMAS AVHRR Pathfinder v5.0 Daily Climatologies (1985-2001) (NCEI Accession 0006682). [indicate subset used]. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Dataset. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/archive/accession/0006682. Accessed [date].
Dataset Identifiers
ISO 19115-2 Metadata
gov.noaa.nodc:0006682
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Ordering Instructions | Contact NCEI for other distribution options and instructions. |
Distributor |
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information +1-301-713-3277 NCEI.Info@noaa.gov |
Dataset Point of Contact |
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information ncei.info@noaa.gov |
Time Period | 1985-01-01 to 2001-12-31 |
Spatial Bounding Box Coordinates |
West: -180
East: 180
South: -90
North: 90
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Data Presentation Form | Digital table - digital representation of facts or figures systematically displayed, especially in columns |
Dataset Progress Status | Complete - production of the data has been completed Historical archive - data has been stored in an offline storage facility |
Data Update Frequency | As needed |
Supplemental Information | The 4 km-resolution time series used to create these climatologies is computed from 1985-2001 using the Version 5.0 Pathfinder algorithm, an improved version of the previously most successful of the many methods used to derive SST from AVHRR observations (see Barton (1995) for a review of earlier techniques), the University of Miami Pathfinder version v4.2 SST algorithm (described fully in Kilpatrick et al., 2001). The v4.2 algorithm offered marked improvement over operational retrieval algorithms such as MCSST and was applied to AVHRR data to maximize accuracy and to minimize artificial fluctuations arising from the sequence of AVHRR instruments flown on NOAA's polar-orbiting satellites during the past 2 decades. The 9 km v4.2 Pathfinder SSTs have already been shown to be the highest quality product currently available for the construction of global climatologies (Casey and Cornillon, 1999) and longer-term SST trend determination (Casey and Cornillon, 2001), and have been demonstrated to be accurate within about 0.3 degrees C under optimal conditions (Kearns et al., 2000). Relative to the older 9 km v4.2 Pathfinder data, the new, ~ 4 km resolution Pathfinder Version 5.0 global SSTs increase detail by a factor of four simply by virtue of the increased resolution. The increase in detail over widely used but relatively coarse SST datasets such as Optimally Interpolated SST Version 2 (OISSTv2; Reynolds et al., 2002) and the Hadley Centre's Global Sea Ice and SST (HadISST1; Rayner et al., 2003) is far greater. In addition to the increased resolution, significant improvements have been made in the Version 5.0 which enhance the usefulness of the SST fields.Currently, these enhancements include the use of sea ice in the quality level determination scheme, inclusion of many inland water bodies, and the use of a greatly improved land mask. The greatest improvements are seen in coastal zones, marginal seas, and boundary current regions where SST gradients are often large and their impact on operational or research products is greatest. Separate SST products for daytime and nighttime AVHRR retrievals are made to better understand the differences in skin and bulk temperatures, since mean differences between AVHRR-measured skin temperatures and bulk temperatures of 0.1 to 0.2 degrees C (Schluessel et al., 1990) and locally varying differences of up to 1.8 degrees C (Minnett et al., 2000) have been observed. |
Purpose | This dataset is available to the public for a wide variety of uses including scientific research and analysis. |
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Last Modified: 2024-03-28T12:47:25Z
For questions about the information on this page, please email: ncei.info@noaa.gov
For questions about the information on this page, please email: ncei.info@noaa.gov