TOVS browse image displaying Temperature at 70 Mb, one of the many variables of the TOVS Pathfinder Path-P Daily Arctic Gridded Atmospheric Parameters data set. Image courtesy of NSIDC.

NSIDC archives and distributes daily and monthly 100 km-resolution data files in Hierarchical Data Format (HDF) from the TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder (TOVS) experiments. In addition, TOVS data are featured in the Polar Pathfinder Sampler, a CD-ROM product designed to illustrate the ease with which parameters across Polar Pathfinder data sets may be compared. The Polar Pathfinder program incorporates data from TOVS, the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), the Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR), and the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I). For more information about the program, visit the NOAA/NASA Polar Pathfinder Web site.

Spanning over twenty years and across both hemispheres, the TOVS data record provides excellent spatial and temporal coverage for stratospheric studies. The TOVS suite of instruments measured a variety of parameters ideal for weather forecasting, such as polar temperature, humidity and temperature profiles, total ozone, and clouds and radiation on a global scale.