A 40-year global dataset of visible channel remote sensing
reflectances and coccolithophore bloom occurrence derived from the
Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer catalogue
Abstract. A consistently calibrated 40-year length dataset of visible channel remote sensing reflectance has been derived from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) sensor global time-series. The dataset uses as its source the Pathfinder Atmospheres – Extended (PATMOS-x) v5.3 Climate Data Record (CDR) for top-of-atmosphere (TOA) visible channel reflectances. This paper describes the theoretical basis for the atmospheric correction procedure and its subsequent implementation, including the necessary ancillary data files used and quality flags applied, in order to determine remote sensing reflectance. The resulting dataset is produced at daily, and archived at monthly, resolution, on a 0.1° × 0.1° grid at https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.892175. The primary aim of deriving this dataset is to highlight regions of the global ocean affected by highly reflective blooms of the coccolithophorid Emiliania Huxleyi over the past 40 years.