TOVS Pathfinder Path-P Daily and Monthly Polar Gridded Atmospheric Parameters  View Catalog Page Entry ID
NSIDC-0027
Summary
The TIROS-N Operational Vertical Sounder (TOVS) Polar Pathfinder (Path-P) data set consists of gridded daily and monthly Arctic and Antarctic atmospheric data derived from various NOAA satellites. TOVS Path-P daily files are available for the Northern and Southern Hemispheres from 60° poleward at 100 km gridded spatial resolution in an Equal-Area Scalable Earth Grid (EASE-Grid). TOVS Path-P monthly files are available for the Northern Hemisphere only from 60° poleward at 100 km gridded spatial resolution in EASE-Grid. Daily and monthly Northern Hemisphere data are available from January 1979 through current processing, and daily Southern Hemisphere data are available from July 1979 through current processing. Data were created from a modified version of the Improved Initialization Inversion Algorithm (3I) (Chedin et al. 1985), a physical-statistical retrieval method improved for use in identifying geophysical variables in snow- and ice-covered areas (Francis 1994).
Variables retrieved from satellite-observed radiances for this product include atmospheric temperature, water vapor, skin surface temperature, total effective cloud fraction, cloud top pressure and temperature, solar zenith elevation, surface pressure, turning angle between geostrophic wind and surface stress over ice, emissivity, boundary layer stratification, and geostrophic drag coefficient. The algorithm used to generate these grids has been validated through comparisons with surface observations from the North Pole drifting meteorological stations (Schweiger et al. 1999).
The complete TOVS data set is available via FTP in Hierarchical Data Format (HDF). Users may also order subsets of the data for any of the parameters listed above or for specific spatial or temporal coverage. Subsetted data are available in binary format only through the Graphical Interface for Subsetting, Mapping, and Ordering (GISMO).
Data users are encouraged to register before accessing the TOVS data. Registered users automatically receive release notes via e-mail containing notification of data manipulation or formatting modifications.
Geographic Coverage
Spatial Coordinates:
N: -60°
S: -90°
E: 180°
W: -180°
N: 90°
S: 60°
E: 180°
W: -180°
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Data Set Citation
Dataset Creator: J. A. Francis and A. J. Schweiger
Dataset Title: TOVS Pathfinder Path-P Daily and Monthly Polar Gridded Atmospheric Parameters
Dataset Release Date: 1999-09-01, updated 2008
Dataset Release Place: Boulder, Colorado USA
Dataset Publisher: National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)
Online Resource: http://nsidc.org/data/nsidc-0027.html
Temporal Coverage
Start Date: 1979-01-01
Start Date: 1979-07-12
Data Resolution
Latitude Resolution: 100 km
Longitude Resolution: 100 km
Temporal Resolution: Daily, Monthly
Location Keywords
- Geographic Region Northern Hemisphere
- Geographic Region Southern Hemisphere
Science Keywords
- Atmosphere Atmospheric Radiation Emissivity
- Atmosphere Atmospheric Temperature Air Temperature
- Atmosphere Atmospheric Temperature Skin Temperature
- Atmosphere Atmospheric Temperature Surface Air Temperature
- Atmosphere Atmospheric Water Vapor Precipitable Water
- Atmosphere Atmospheric Winds Wind Stress GEOSTROPHIC DRAG COEFFICIENT
- Atmosphere Clouds Cloud Amount/Frequency EFFECTIVE CLOUD FRACTION
- Atmosphere Clouds Cloud Top Pressure
- Atmosphere Clouds Cloud Top Temperature
- Oceans Ocean Winds Wind Stress
Ancillary Keywords
- Atmospheric Stratification
- Boundary Layer
- Boundary Layer Stratification
- Cloud Fraction
- Cloud Properties
- Cloud Top Pressure
- Cloud Top Temperature
- Cloud Tops
- DAAC
- EOSDIS
- Geostrophic Drag Coefficient
- Geostrophic Wind
- Humidity Profiles
- Ice
- ICE SURFACE SKIN TEMPERATURE
- INITIALIZATION INVERSION ALGTHM
- NOAA/NASA Pathfinder
- North Polar Basin
- NSIDC DAAC
- Ocean Surface Skin Temperature
- Path P
- Polar Exchange At Sea Surface
- Poles
- SNOW ICE
- Temperature Profiles
- TOVS
- Turning Angle
- Climatology/Meteorology/Atmosphere
Platform
- NOAA-10 National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration-10
- NOAA-11 National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration-11
- NOAA-12 National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration-12
- NOAA-13 National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration-13
- NOAA-14 National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration-14
- NOAA-6 National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration-6
- NOAA-7 National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration-7
- NOAA-8 National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration-8
- NOAA-9 National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration-9
Instrument
- HIRS High Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder
- MSU Microwave Sounding Unit
- SOUNDERS
- TOVS TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder
Project
- CEAREX Coordinated Eastern Arctic Experiment
- EOSDIS Earth Observing System Data Information System
- ESIP Earth Science Information Partners Program
- NOAA/NASA PATHFINDER NOAA/NASA Pathfinder Program
Quality
The algorithm used to generate these grids has been validated directly through comparisons with surface observations from the CEAREX experiment and with radiosonde data from Soviet ice stations. Comparisons with other TOVS retrieval algorithms provided further validation. Additionally, Schweiger et al. (1999) found a strong correlation between the TOVS Path-P data and surface cloud observations obtained from the North Polar drifting meteorological stations, which indicates that the TOVS data effectively represent annual cloud cover.
Access Constraints
Users are strongly encouraged to register before accessing data. Registered users automatically receive release notes via e-mail containing notification of data manipulation or formatting modifications.
Data Set Progress
IN WORK
Data Center
National Snow and Ice Data Center
Data Center URL: http://nsidc.org
Data Set ID: NSIDC-0027
Data Center Personnel
Name: NSIDC User Services
Phone: +1 (303) 492-6199
Fax: +1 (303) 492-2468
Email: nsidc@nsidc.org
Contact Address:
National Snow and Ice Data Center
CIRES, 449 UCB
University of Colorado
City: Boulder
Province or State: CO
Postal Code: 80309-0449
Country: USA
NSIDC Distributed Active Archive Center
Data Center URL: http://nsidc.org/daac/index.html
Data Set ID: NSIDC-0027
Data Center Personnel
Name: NSIDC DAAC User Services
Phone: +1 (303) 492-6199
Fax: +1 (303) 492-2468
Email: nsidc@nsidc.org
Contact Address:
National Snow and Ice Data Center
CIRES, 449 UCB
University of Colorado
City: Boulder
Province or State: CO
Postal Code: 80309-0449
Country: USA
Distribution
Distribution Media: FTP
Distribution Size: 506,437 to 778,864 KB uncompressed
Distribution Format: HDF
Fees: None
Personnel
JENNIFER A. FRANCIS
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Phone: 206-543-1254
Fax: 206-543-3521
Email: francis@apl.washington.edu
Contact Address:
Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, New Jersey
USA
AXEL J. SCHWEIGER
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Phone: 206-543-1312
Fax: 206-543-3521
Email: axel@apl.washington.edu
Contact Address:
Applied Physics Laboratory
University of Washington
1013 NE 40th Street
City: Seattle
Province or State: WA
Postal Code: 98105-6698
Country: USA
NSIDC USER SERVICES
Role: TECHNICAL CONTACT
Phone: +1 (303) 492-6199
Fax: +1 (303) 492-2468
Email: nsidc@nsidc.org
Contact Address:
National Snow and Ice Data Center
CIRES, 449 UCB
University of Colorado
City: Boulder
Province or State: CO
Postal Code: 80309-0449
Country: USA
Related URL
VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
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Reference
Brodzik, M.J. 1998. The EASE-Grid, A Versatile Set of Equal-Area Projections and Grids. Special report to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, Boulder, CO. Chedin, A., N. A. Scott, C. Wahiche and P. Moulinier. 1985. The Improved Initialization Inversion Method: A high resolution physical method for temperature retrievals from satellites of the TIROS-N series. Journal of Climate and Applied Meteorology. 24:128-143.
Francis, J. A. 1994. Improvements to TOVS retrievals over sea ice and applications to estimating Arctic energy fluxes. Journal of Geophysical Research. 99(D5):10,395-408.
Schweiger, A. J., R. W. Lindsay, J. R. Key, and J. A. Francis. 1999. Arctic clouds in multiyear satellite data sets. Geophysical Research Letters 26(13):1,845-48.
Schweiger, A. J., R. W. Lindsay, J. A. Francis, J. R. Key, J. Intrieri, M. Shupe. Validation of TOVS Path-P data during SHEBA. Submitted to Journal of Geophysical Research, May 2000.
Metadata Name and Version
Metadata Name: CEOS IDN DIF
Metadata Version: 9.7
Creation and Review Dates
DIF Creation Date: 1999-09-01
Last DIF Revision Date: 2009-02-19
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