Home -- ENSO Cycle -- ENSO Effects -- Missions -- Data -- Tools -- Site Map Data Provided -- How To Order -- Local Links

Top of Page

The NOAA/NASA Pathfinder Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometers (AVHRR) datasets contain global, geophysical parameters derived from the AVHRR instruments on the "afternoon" NOAA operational meteorological satellites (NOAA-7, -9, -11, -14). The Pathfinder Program, initiated by NOAA and NASA, produced long-term datasets processed in a consistent manner for global change research. The datasets cover the period from July 1981 through the present.

The composite datasets are 10-day or monthly composites of the same geophysical parameters as the daily data, and these data are mapped to the same global, 8 km, equal area projection as the daily data. To minimize the effects of clouds and atmospheric contaminants, the composite selects the observation for each 8 km x 8 km bin within a 10 day or monthly period that has the fewest clouds, as identified by the highest NDVI value. Only data within 42 degrees of nadir are used in the composite to minimize spatial distortion and bidirectional effect biases at the edge of a scan. There are three 10-day composites per month, and for some products, one monthly composite per month. The first 10-day composite of each month is for days 1 through 10, the second is for days 11 through 20, and the third is for the remaining days.

Top of Page

Data to be ordered/downloaded may be selected using browse images

• AVHRR Land Pathfinder browse images may be viewed and downloaded at http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/REFERENCE_DOCS/HDF/gb_data/avhrr_10d.html.

• AVHRR Oceans Pathfinder browse images may be viewed and downloaded at http://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/db/podaac/avhrr_browse.hts.

These and other AVHRR Land Pathfinder granules can be ordered using the dataset name via

• The EOS Data Gateway (EDG) search-and-order system at http://eos.nasa.gov/imswelcome

• The GES DAAC search-and-order tool, Web-based Hierarchical Ordering Mechanism (WHOM), at http://acdisx.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/dataset/AVHRR/

• The Pathfinder AVHRR Web-Based Browser/Online Ordering System at http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/dataset/AVHRR/01_Data_Products/03_Tenday/index.html

These and other AVHRR Oceans Pathfinder granules can be ordered using the dataset name via

• The EDG search-and-order system at http://eos.nasa.gov/imswelcome

• The PO.DAAC FTP site: ftp://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/sea_surface_temperature/avhrr/pathfinder/data_v4.1/best_sst/monthly/ascending/09km/1998/

More general information on how to find and order Earth-observing instrument data is provided on this CD-ROM.

Local Links

Top of Page

• Pathfinder Missions

• AVHRR Land Pathfinder Mission

• AVHRR Oceans Pathfinder Mission