AVHRR-based Polar Pathfinder products for modeling applications

Abstract
A suite of Arctic and Antarctic products is being prepared from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and ancillary data as part of NASA’s Polar Pathfinder effort. These products consist of twice-daily gridded fields of clear-sky surface temperature, surface albedo and cloud fraction, as well as daily ice velocities, for 1983–96. The products and their production methodology are summarized here, with examples demonstrating applications of the Pathfinder products for process studies and modeling.