NOAA/NASA AVHRR Oceans Pathfinder Sea Surface Temperature Data Set User''s Reference Manual

Sea Surface Temperature Data Set User's Guide Version 1.2 September 27, 1995 Jorge Vazquez Andy Van Tran Rosanna Sumagaysay Elizabeth Smith Mike Hamilton Click here for Picture (JPL) Click here for Picture (PO.DAAC) Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Scope This document describes the production, quality assurance, archive, and methods of acquiring and using the Advanced Very-High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) Ocean Pathfinder sea-surface temperature (SST) data set (hereafter, Pathfinder SST). It briefly discusses the AVHRR instrument and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite platforms, the history of satellite-derived SST, and the refinement of the nonlinear correction algorithm and cloud clearing techniques used in reprocessing AVHRR level-1B global-area coverage (GAC) data to produce the Pathfinder SST data set. It provides information on the various Pathfinder SST products and details of the distribution of the data by the Earthe Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). 1.2 Project Description The Earth Observing System (EOS), centerpiece of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth, is expected to generate about 2 trillion bytes of new data per day. The Pathfinder projects were initiated as preparation for the projected volume of data that will be returned from EOS. The mandate of the Pathfinder SST task is to produce, validate, and evaluate a long time-series of AVHRR-derived SST as a precursor to EOS data sets, and for use in climatologic investigations and modeling. Historically, radiometer data have been used with several algorithms to produce estimates of SST (see McClain et. al, 1985 for a review). Multichannel sea-surface temperatures (MCSST) have been computed from AVHRR radiances operationally since 1981. Avhrr_oceans_user_guide.doc http://web.archive.org/web/19971013134751/podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/sstO/u...