40-year AVHRR record of visible channel Rrs and coccolithophorid blooms, links to netCDF files

A consistently calibrated 40-year record of visible channel remote sensing reflectances (Rrs), based on the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) sensor global time-series. The dataset is derived from the top of atmosphere visible channel reflectances provided by the Pathfinder Atmospheres - Extended (PATMOS-x) V5.3 Climate Data Record (CDR), atmospherically corrected and masked according to quality flags. Temporal filtering and selective masking of the Rrs product is used to highlight regions of the global ocean affected by highly reflective blooms of the coccolithophorid Emiliania Huxleyi over the past four decades.

Both the Rrs and coccolithophorid bloom product are supplied at monthly resolution on a 0.1 x 0.1 degree global grid. Monthly mean and monthly maximum values are supplied for each product. Requests for daily files can be made to Plymouth Marine Laboratory.