Global data sets for land applications from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer: an introduction

Abstract

The Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) has become one of the most important sensors for monitoring the terrestrial environment at resolutions of 1 km to very coarse resolutions of 15 km and greater. To make these data suitable for scientific and other applications considerable effort has been devoted to the creation of global data sets. Experience has demonstrated that even for a relatively simple sensor such as the AVHRR, the task of creating global data set is fraught with difficulties and that a number of iterations have been necessary despite considerable efforts in the specification of users' requirements Four types of data processing streams, overlapping in time, have occurred in the creation of global data sets from the AVHRR. The first three data processing streams were all based on the reduced resolution, Global Area Coverage (GAC) data set, which is collected globally every day. In the first data processing stream a much reduced data set was created in the form of the Global Vegetation Index (GVI) product: revised improved versions of the product have been produced. In the second data processing stream an improved product was created by workers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center with higher spatial resolution but which until recently has only been available by continent. This has resulted in the creation of a number of regional data sets. In the third data processing stream operational creation of global data sets at moderately coarse resolution (c. 8 km) is being initiated. The most notable example of this data processing stream is part of NASA's Pathfinder project and stems in large part directly from the second data processing stream: it will involved production of a reprocessed improved global data set for the period from 1982 to the present. In the fourth data processing stream the full potential of the AVHRR in terms of its spatial resolution is being realized, through the generation of a global data set at 1 1 km resolution data.