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NOAA Climate Data Record (CDR) of AVHRR Polar Pathfinder (APP) Cryosphere, Version 2

Published by DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI > National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce | Catalog Last Checked: April 12, 2026 at 09:24 PM | Dataset Last Updated: May 01, 2019 at 12:00 AM
This NOAA Climate Data Record (CDR) contains the AVHRR Polar Pathfinder (APP) product. APP is a fundamental 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. The update to version 2 of the APP FCDR was updated calibration coefficients for AVHRR GAC visible channels over the entire period.

Resources

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  • NCEI Dataset Landing Page

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  • CDR Direct Download

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  • NCEI THREDDS Catalog

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  • Registry of Open Data on AWS

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  • AWS S3 Explorer (Region: us-east-1)

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  • Azure Landing Page (Region: us-east)

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  • NCEI Archive Information Request System (AIRS)

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  • AVHRR-based polar pathfinder products for modeling applications

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  • NOAA Climate Data Record (CDR) of AVHRR Polar Pathfinder Extended (APP-X) Climate Data Record (CDR)

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  • Deriving an inter-sensor consistent calibration for the AVHRR solar reflectance data record

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  • Calibrations for AVHRR channels 1 and 2: review and path towards consensus

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  • Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Keywords

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Complete Metadata
@type dcat:Dataset
accessLevel non-public
accrualPeriodicity R/P1D
contactPoint 
{
  "fn": "NOAA Climate Data Record Program (CDRP)",
  "@type": "vcard:Contact",
  "hasEmail": "mailto:app_contacts@noaa.gov"
}
describedByType application/octet-steam
description This NOAA Climate Data Record (CDR) contains the AVHRR Polar Pathfinder (APP) product. APP is a fundamental 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. The update to version 2 of the APP FCDR was updated calibration coefficients for AVHRR GAC visible channels over the entire period.
distribution 
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    "description": "Links to data set on THREDDS server for sub-setting and downloading data.",
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    "accessURL": "https://noaa-cdr-polar-pathfinder-fcdr-pds.s3.amazonaws.com/index.html",
    "mediaType": "text/html",
    "description": "Browse view to explore the S3 bucket.",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-stream"
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    "description": "Information on Microsoft Azure data access.",
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    "title": "AVHRR-based polar pathfinder products for modeling applications",
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    "title": "NOAA Climate Data Record (CDR) of AVHRR Polar Pathfinder Extended (APP-X) Climate Data Record (CDR)",
    "accessURL": "https://doi.org/10.25921/AE96-0E57",
    "mediaType": "text/html",
    "description": "Landing page for related dataset, APP-X CDR",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-stream"
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    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "Deriving an inter-sensor consistent calibration for the AVHRR solar reflectance data record",
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    "mediaType": "text/html",
    "description": "The information provided on this page seeks to define how the GCMD Keywords are structured, used and accessed. It also provides information on how users can participate in the further development of the keywords.",
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identifier https://data.noaa.gov/waf/NOAA/NESDIS/ncei/aim/iso/xml/C01579.xml
issued 2019-05-01T00:00:00.000+00:00
keyword 
[
  "Earth Science > Spectral/Engineering > Infrared Wavelengths > Brightness Temperature",
  "Geographic Region > Arctic",
  "Continent > Antarctica",
  "Vertical Location > Land Surface",
  "Vertical Location > Sea Surface",
  "AVHRR > Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer",
  "NOAA POES > NOAA Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellites",
  "1 km - < 10 km or approximately .01 degree - < .09 degree",
  "DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCDC > National Climatic Data Center, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce",
  "DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI > National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce"
]
landingPage https://doi.org/10.25921/X2X1-JR34
language 
[]
license https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
modified 2019-05-01T00:00:00.000+00:00
publisher 
{
  "name": "DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI > National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce",
  "@type": "org:Organization"
}
references 
[
  "http://www.igsoc.org/annals/25/",
  "https://doi.org/10.25921/AE96-0E57",
  "https://doi.org/10.1080/01431161.2010.496472",
  "https://doi.org/10.1080/01431161.2010.496473"
]
rights otherRestrictions
spatial 180.0,-90.0,-180.0,90.0
temporal 1982-01-01T00:00:00+00:00/1982-01-01T00:00:00+00:00
title NOAA Climate Data Record (CDR) of AVHRR Polar Pathfinder (APP) Cryosphere, Version 2

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