Climate Data Record of Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) Polar Pathfinder (APP), 1982-Present

The AVHRR Polar Pathfinder (APP) product is a fundamental Climate Data Record (CDR) comprised of calibrated and navigated AVHRR channel data (reflectances and brightness temperatures), viewing and illumination geometry (sensor scan angle, solar zenith angle, and sun-sensor relative azimuth angle), Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) of the data acquisition, and a surface type mask. The data are twice daily composites of up to 23 orbits on a 5 km Equal-Area Scalable Earth (EASE)-Grid twice daily over both poles, the Arctic and Antarctic, from 1982 to the present. The daily APP composites are centered on local solar times of 14:00 (high sun, but could be nighttime for some polar areas in winter) and 04:00 for the Arctic or 02:00 for the Antarctic. The APP covers the north polar region (Arctic) from 48.4 degrees northward, and the south polar region (Antarctic) from -53.2 degrees southward.