Characteristics of the TOVS Pathfinder Path A Dataset

Abstract

Abstract The TIROS (Television Infrared Observation Satellite) Operational Vertical Sounder (TOVS) Pathfinder Path A dataset is currently a 9-yr dataset, 1985–93, of global fields of surface and atmospheric parameters derived from analysis of HIRS2 and MSU data on the NOAA-9, NOAA-10, NOAA-11, and NOAA-12 polar-orbiting operational meteorological satellites. The retrieved fields include land and ocean surface skin temperature, atmospheric temperature and water vapor profiles, total atmospheric O3 burden, cloud-top pressure and radiatively effective fractional cloud cover, outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) and longwave cloud radiative forcing, and precipitation estimate. The fields are gridded on a 1° × 1° latitude–longitude grid and stored on a 1-day mean, 5-day mean, and monthly mean basis, with data from each satellite's local a.m. and p.m. orbits stored separately. Preliminary validation studies of the interannual differences of geophysical parameters derived from the TOVS Pathfinder dataset imply suff...