NOAA Climate Data Record (CDR) of Cloud Properties from AVHRR Pathfinder Atmospheres - Extended (PATMOS-x), Version 5.3

This NOAA Climate Data Record (CDR) of cloud products was produced by the University of Wisconsin using the AVHRR Pathfinder Atmospheres - Extended (PATMOS-X) Version 5.3 processing system. The CDR spans from 1979 to the present with daily, global coverage generated from between two and ten NOAA and MetOp satellite passes per day. The source AVHRR data points, with a sensor resolution of 1.09 km near nadir, have been fitted to a 0.1 x 0.1 degree equal-angle grid in ascending and descending files. The four fundamental cloud variables in the CDR include: 1) Cloud Optical Thickness; 2) Cloud Particle Size; 3) Cloud Temperature; and 4) Cloud Emissivity. These cloud products are derived using the ABI (Advanced Baseline Imager) Cloud Height Algorithm (ACHA) and the Daytime Cloud Optical Properties (DCOMP) algorithm. Other variables in this dataset were derived from the four primary variables, or generated through error/quality control assessment in the algorithms. Not counting the coordinate variables, there are 48 data and ancillary data variables in the netCDF data file to facilitate proper data usage. The file format was converted from HDF to netCDF-4 with metadata following the Climate and Forecast (CF) Conventions and Attribute Convention for Dataset Discovery (ACDD). The dataset is accompanied by algorithm documentation, data flow diagram and source code for the NOAA CDR Program.