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 1. Home
 2. Products
 3. AVHRR Pathfinder SST


AVHRR PATHFINDER SST

This product is a long-term Climate Data Record (1981–present) that builds on
the historic aspect of Pathfinder Sea Surface Temperature (SST) (Saha et. al
2018). It contains global, twice-daily (Day and Night) 4km SST derived from
measurements captured by Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR)
instruments aboard NOAA polar-orbiting satellites. 

 * Data Access
 * About
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VERSION 5.3

DATA

 * HTTPS  
 * FTP
 * THREDDS  
 * Metadata  
 * Algorithm Documentation

GRAPHICS

 * Pathfinder 5.3 with all available pixel values
 * Pathfinder 5.2 missing pixels
 * Pathfinder 5.3 with ‘0’ quality pixels removed



CITATION

Saha, Korak; Zhao, Xuepeng; Zhang, Huai-min; Casey, Kenneth S.; Zhang, Dexin;
Baker-Yeboah, Sheekela; Kilpatrick, Katherine A.; Evans, Robert H.; Ryan,
Thomas; Relph, John M. (2018). AVHRR Pathfinder version 5.3 level 3 collated
(L3C) global 4km sea surface temperature for 1981-Present. [indicate subset
used]. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Dataset.
https://doi.org/10.7289/v52j68xx(link is external). Accessed [date].

 

Updates

 * Incorporates '0' quality SST data
 * Better representation of sun glint regions
 * Cloud tree tests for NOAA-7 and NOAA-19 are consistent with the other sensors
 * sst_dtime variable is empty
 * Improved CF and ACDD compliance for Global and variable attributes in netCDF
 * Aligns with the NCEI netCDF templates
 * Anomalous hot-spots at land-water boundaries are better identified and
   flagged
 * Land mask updated based on Global Lakes and Wetlands Database: Lakes and
   Wetlands Grid Level 3, 2015
 * Sea ice data over the Antarctic ice shelves are marked as ice and flagged as
   100% ice cover
 * Data output are netCDF version 4 in "classic" mode
 * An extra bit (bit 6) is used under l2p_flags variable to flag out the daytime
   unrealistic SST values (>39.8°C) that remain in pf_quality_level 4 to 7.]



Previous Versions

VersionTime FrameDimensionsFormatDOIAccess5.209/01/1981–12/31/2012Global (N: 90
S: -90 E: 180 W: -180)netCDF-410.7289/v5wd3xhb(link is external)
 * HTTP
 * FTP
 * THREDDS
 * Metadata(link is external)

5.0, Interim 5.0, and 5.108/24/1981–12/31/2009Global (N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W:
-180)HDF (Version 4), JPEGN/AMetadata5.0 SST climatologies
1985-200101/01/1985–12/31/2001Global (N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180)HDF (Version
4), JPEGN/A
 * HTTP
 * FTP
 * THREDDS
 * Metadata

5.0 SST cloud-screened monthly climatologies 1985-2006

1985-01-01 - 2006-12-31

Global (N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180)HDF (Version 4), JPEG

N/A

Metadata

CITATION

Version 5.2Casey, Kenneth S.; Evans, Robert H.; Baringer, Warner; Kilpatrick,
Katherine A.; Podesta, Guillermo P.; Walsh, Susan; Williams, Elizabeth; Brandon,
Tess B.; Byrne, Deirdre A.; Foti, Gregg; Li, Yuanjie; Phillips, Sheri A.; Zhang,
Dexin; Zhang, Yongsheng (2011). AVHRR Pathfinder version 5.2 level 3 collated
(L3C) global 4km sea surface temperature for 1981-2012. [indicate subset used].
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Dataset.
doi:10.7289/v5wd3xhb(link is external). Accessed [date].

SAMPLE TEXT

In a Product"These data were provided by GHRSST and the US National Centers for
Environmental Information. This project was supported in part by a grant from
the NOAA Climate Data Record (CDR) Program for satellites."In a paper"In this
study, we used AVHRR Pathfinder Version 5.X (PFV5.X) data, obtained from the US
National Centers for Environmental Information and GHRSST. The PFV5.X data are
an updated version of the Pathfinder Version 5.0 and 5.1 collection described in
Casey et al. (2010)."




SST COMPUTATION

SST is computed with a regression based non-linear algorithm using a modernized
system based on the NASA SeaWiFS Data Analysis System SeaDAS (version 6.4). The
algorithm has been applied consistently to the full product timeline (August
1981-Present). Algorithm  coefficients were generated using regression analyses
with co-located in situ and satellite measurements based on Kilpatrick, Podesta
and Evans (2001)(link is external). 


CITATION

Kilpatrick, K. A., Podestá, G. P., & Evans, R. (2001). Overview of the NOAA/NASA
advanced very high resolution radiometer Pathfinder algorithm for sea surface
temperature and associated matchup database. Journal of Geophysical Research,
106(C5), 9179–9197. https://doi.org/10.1029/1999JC000065(link is external).


ADDITIONAL REFERENCES

Casey K.S., Brandon T.B., Cornillon P., Evans R. (2010) The Past, Present, and
Future of the AVHRR Pathfinder SST Program. In: Barale V., Gower J., Alberotanza
L. (eds) Oceanography from Space. Springer, Dordrecht.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8681-5_16(link is external).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Saha, K.; Dash, P.; Zhao, X.; Zhang, H.-M. Error Estimation of Pathfinder
Version 5.3 Level-3C SST Using Extended Triple Collocation Analysis. Remote
Sens. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12040590(link is external).


PATHFINDER 5.2 TROUBLESHOOTING

A code error in the NASA SeaDAS package spatial binning software used to create
daily PFSST L3C (collated) data and MODISV5 products was identified and
corrected in 2015 by NASA in SeaDAS7.2 for MODIS SST data, but not for AVHRR SST
algorithms.NCEI will correct this problem in a future version, and make updates
to address it now. In global maps of Pathfinder V5.2 and V5.3 high latitude
SST’s in months near the summer (June) solstice and winter (December) solstice
are often incorrect above 50 degrees latitude, due to improper splitting of the
mixed night and day granules due to NASA SeaDAS package.PFV53 are not fully
GDS2.0 compliant: sses_bias, sses_standard_deviation, and sst_dtime variables
are empty.These empty variables are a known issue, but could not be included in
PFV53. They will be included in a future version.There’s a significant gap
between 1994275 to 1995017. In the original PFV50 processing, these data were
available from RSMAS and PFV50 has been used to temporarily fill that gap, as in
PF52.Level 0 GAC data from NOAA-9 have been located and provided to the National
Centers for Environmental Information. These data will be included in a future
version.The aerosol_depth_indicator variable is sub-optimal because it relies on
two fairly different sources of aerosol data.We will be incorporating our
in-house generated climate quality Aerosol Optical Thickness product for the
entire time period in the future version. This aerosol data is more consistent
and stable and is already incorporated for our forward processing from 2016 to
present.Aerosols missing from primary and fallback sources for Sep 1994 - Feb
1995, as in PF52.Corrected for now by using the previous year's aerosol values
for the missing days (as in PF52). In future, we will fill this gap using our
in-house aerosol optical thickness climate data record.Sea ice missing from
primary and fallback sources for 1987 day 340 through 1988 day 10.Temporarily
resolved by using ice records from the previous year, but the source attribute
does not appear to properly reflect this correction. NCEI is investigating
missing sea ice in the DOISST for this period and will work with our sea-ice
data providers to improve coverage in the early years of their datasets.Both
PF5.2 and PF53 reveal a very small percentage of pixels with SST values > 39.8
degrees C (see l2p_flags) and a need to investigate other high SST
values.Improved flagging of a very small percentage of pixels with SST values >
39.8 degrees C (see l2p_flags) has been implemented. Further analysis will be
done to better quantify similarly high SST values in the PFSST products.


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