1996 Average Monthly Sea Surface Temperature for California

The NOAA/ NASA AVHRR Oceans Pathfinder sea surface temperature data are derived from the 5-channel Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometers (AVHRR) on board the NOAA -7, -9, -11, -14, -16 and -17 polar orbiting satellites. Daily, 8-day and monthly averaged data for both the ascending pass (daytime) and descending pass (nighttime) are available on equal-angle grids of 8192 pixels/360 degrees (nominally referred to as the 4km resolution, 4096 pixels/360 degrees (nominally referred to as the 9km resolution), 2048 pixels/360 degrees (nominally referred to as the 18km resolution), and 720 pixels/360 degrees (nominally referred to as the 54km resolution or 0.5 degree resolution).The monthly averaged daytime data was converted to an ESRI GRID format and the 12 monthly grid files were combined into one annual grid with a attribute field for each month.

The NODC/RSMAS (version 5.0) and the NOAA/NASA (version 4.1) Pathfinder Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) SST product is a high quality dataset derived from the NOAA polar-orbiting series of satellites that start with the NOAA-9 in 1985. This dataset represents a historical reprocessing of the entire AVHRR time series using consistent SST algorithms, improved satellite and inter-satellite calibration, quality control and cloud detection. Version 5.0 data are available from 1985 to the present at several different temporal resolutions. A complete collection may be accessed at the National Oceanographic Data Center's web site at http://pathfinder.nodc.noaa.gov or through the their FTP site at ftp://data.nodc.noaa.gov/pub/data.nodc/pathfinder. Data may also be accessed and subsetted through the PO.DAAC interface at http://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/poet or global files downloaded from the ftp site at ftp://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov. Where possible all users are encouraged to use Version 5.0 data. Version 4.1 is being kept on-line only to facilitate the transition because of different file structures and formats. Phasing out of Version 4.1 is expected to occur in 2005. Version 4.1 data are available through June of 2003 at daily, 8-day and monthly averages and 9km, 18km, and 54km resolutions. Data gaps occur primarily due to cloud cover because of the inability of the infrared sensor to detect ocean temperatures in these conditions. Quality flag information is available that allows the user to apply various levels of cloud masking. For Version 4.1 a separate product is available that has applied quality flags to define a best_sst field. Quality flags were developed by the algorithm team, headed by Professor Robert Evans, at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. Current plans include extending this data at a near-real rate. Error estimates for this dataset range from 0.3 degrees Celsius to 0.5 degrees Celsius Further information and documentation on this data product is available through http://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/. A Pathfinder-derived 9km 5-day (pentad) JPL derived climatology, along with the NSIPP/Casey, Cornillon pentad and monthly climatologies, are available that allows the user to apply a high resolution climatology suitable for climate studies. Both these climatologies are derived from the Pathfinder dataset, with more information available through http://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/.

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Microsoft Windows XP Version 5.1 (Build 2600) Service Pack 2; ESRI ArcCatalog 9.1.0.722

All data downloaded was used in the preparation of the final ESRI grid

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