AVHRR Pathfinder version 5 4km global sea surface temperature (SST) seasonal and annual day-night climatologies for 1982-2009 for the Gulf of Mexico (NCEI Accession 0072888)

Published by NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce | Metadata Last Checked: January 26, 2026 | Last Modified: 2021-10-15T00:00:00.000+00:00

This dataset contains a set of sea surface temperature climatologies for the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), derived from the AVHRR Pathfinder Version 5 global 4km sea surface temperature data set. These GOM climatologies were produced from 5-day cloud-screened day-night averages of Pathfinder SST data from 1982-2009, which are archived at the National Oceanographic Data Center under separate accession numbers. In addition to sea surface temperature, the climatologies also include minimum, maximum, standard deviation, and number of observations. The climatologies are available as 32-bit Tagged Image File Format (.TIFF) data files for 1982-2009 and include seasonal and yearly time periods. The climatologies are also included as Arc Grid (.mxd) and .PNG layers with associated legends for user convenience and were assigned projection GCS_WGS_1984. An additional subdirectory contains the annual mean, season 1 (Jan-Mar) mean, season 2 (Apr -June) mean, season 3 (Jul - Sept) mean, and season 4 (Oct-Dec) mean as color-classified .PNG images with a matching shape file that we developed for use in online visualizations. A separate GOM land mask which will also display inland water bodies has been included with this accession. The land mask was developed from the Global Self-consistent, Hierarchical, High-resolution Shoreline Database v2.2.0 product (Wessel and Smith, 2011). The user should note that although quality flags were assigned consistently for all water pixels, SSTs for inland water bodies (lakes and rivers) should be used with caution, as their accuracy has not been documented and there are numerous complexities involved with determining surface temperatures in inland regions.

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describedByType	application/octet-steam
description	This dataset contains a set of sea surface temperature climatologies for the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), derived from the AVHRR Pathfinder Version 5 global 4km sea surface temperature data set. These GOM climatologies were produced from 5-day cloud-screened day-night averages of Pathfinder SST data from 1982-2009, which are archived at the National Oceanographic Data Center under separate accession numbers. In addition to sea surface temperature, the climatologies also include minimum, maximum, standard deviation, and number of observations. The climatologies are available as 32-bit Tagged Image File Format (.TIFF) data files for 1982-2009 and include seasonal and yearly time periods. The climatologies are also included as Arc Grid (.mxd) and .PNG layers with associated legends for user convenience and were assigned projection GCS_WGS_1984. An additional subdirectory contains the annual mean, season 1 (Jan-Mar) mean, season 2 (Apr -June) mean, season 3 (Jul - Sept) mean, and season 4 (Oct-Dec) mean as color-classified .PNG images with a matching shape file that we developed for use in online visualizations. A separate GOM land mask which will also display inland water bodies has been included with this accession. The land mask was developed from the Global Self-consistent, Hierarchical, High-resolution Shoreline Database v2.2.0 product (Wessel and Smith, 2011). The user should note that although quality flags were assigned consistently for all water pixels, SSTs for inland water bodies (lakes and rivers) should be used with caution, as their accuracy has not been documented and there are numerous complexities involved with determining surface temperatures in inland regions.
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identifier	gov.noaa.nodc:0072888
issued	2011-05-18T00:00:00.000+00:00
keyword	[ "0072888", "SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE", "AVHRR-2", "AVHRR-3", "GIS product", "satellite data", "NOAA-11", "NOAA-14", "NOAA-16", "NOAA-17", "NOAA-18", "NOAA-7", "NOAA-9", "US National Oceanographic Data Center", "US National Oceanographic Data Center", "Pathfinder", "Coastal Waters of Florida", "Coastal Waters of Gulf of Mexico", "Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary", "Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary", "Gulf of Mexico", "North American Coastline-South", "North Atlantic Ocean", "Sarasota Bay", "St. Andrew Bay - Florida", "Straits of Florida", "oceanography", "DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NODC > National Oceanographic Data Center, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce", "NOAA/NASA PATHFINDER > NOAA/NASA Pathfinder Program", "EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Zoology > Corals > Reef Monitoring and Assessment > Remote Sensing > Satellite (digital scans) > AVHRR", "EARTH SCIENCE > Oceans > Ocean Temperature > Sea Surface Temperature > AVHRR", "EARTH SCIENCE > Oceans > Ocean Temperature > Water Temperature", "EARTH SCIENCE > Oceans > Ocean Temperature > Sea Surface Temperature > AVHRR", "EARTH SCIENCE > Oceans > Ocean Temperature > Sea Surface Temperature > AVHRR > 4km Pathfinder", "EARTH SCIENCE > Oceans > Ocean Temperature > Sea Surface Temperature > AVHRR > 9km Pathfinder", "EARTH SCIENCE > Oceans > Ocean Temperature > Sea Surface Temperature > AVHRR > MCSST", "EARTH SCIENCE > Oceans > Ocean Temperature > Sea Surface Temperature > AVHRR > NLSST", "EARTH SCIENCE > BIOSPHERE > ECOSYSTEMS > MARINE ECOSYSTEMS > COASTAL", "EARTH SCIENCE > BIOSPHERE > ECOSYSTEMS > MARINE ECOSYSTEMS > REEF", "EARTH SCIENCE > Climate Indicators", "EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN TEMPERATURE > SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE", "EARTH SCIENCE > Oceans > Coastal Processes > Coral Reefs", "EARTH SCIENCE > TERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE > WATER QUALITY/WATER CHEMISTRY > WATER CHARACTERISTICS > WATER TEMPERATURE", "AVHRR-2 > Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer-2", "AVHRR-3 > Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer-3", "NOAA-11 > National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration-11", "NOAA-14 > National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration-14", "NOAA-16 > National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration-16", "NOAA-17 > National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration-17", "NOAA-18 > National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration-18", "NOAA-7 > National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration-7", "NOAA-9 > National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration-9", "NOAA-11 (ICES code: 3101, 1988-2004)", "NOAA-14 (ICES code: 3277, 1994-2007)", "NOAA-16 (ICES code: 33J9, 2000-2014)", "NOAA-17 (ICES code: 33ZS, 2002-2013)", "NOAA-18 (ICES code: 33WM, 2005-2016)", "NOAA-7 (ICES code: 33V2, 1981-1986)", "NOAA-9 (ICES code: 33OO, 1984-1998)", "OCEAN > ATLANTIC OCEAN > NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN", "OCEAN > ATLANTIC OCEAN > NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN > GULF OF AMERICA", "OCEAN > ATLANTIC OCEAN > NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN > GULF OF MEXICO" ]
landingPage	https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/contact
language	[]
license	https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
modified	2021-10-15T00:00:00.000+00:00
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references	[ "https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/avhrr-pathfinder-sst", "https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/SeaSurfaceTemperature", "https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8681-5_16", "https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/archive/accession/AVHRR_Pathfinder-NODC-v5.0_v5.1", "https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/archive/accession/AVHRR_Pathfinder-NODC-v5.0_v5.1-climatologies", "https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/archive/accession/0110657", "https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/archive/accession/AVHRR_Pathfinder-NODC-v5.0-climatologies", "https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/satellite/publications/podguides/TIROS-N%20thru%20N-14/", "https://www.soest.hawaii.edu/pwessel/gshhg/" ]
rights	otherRestrictions
spatial	-78.9,17.03,-98.68,31.97
temporal	1982-01-01T00:00:00+00:00/2009-12-31T00:00:00+00:00
title	AVHRR Pathfinder version 5 4km global sea surface temperature (SST) seasonal and annual day-night climatologies for 1982-2009 for the Gulf of Mexico (NCEI Accession 0072888)