To address the needs of the cryospheric science community, the SMMR-SSM/I, AVHRR and TOVS research teams collaborated to make it as easy as possible for the Polar Pathfinders and related data sets to be used together. The teams employed a common projection, the NSIDC Equal-Area Scalable Earth-Grid (EASE-Grid), file naming conventions and validation methods to develop consistently processed data sets that are easy to combine and contrast.

The Polar Pathfinder Sampler CD-ROM is an innovative assemblage of atmospheric and surface measurements from all three Pathfinders. Included is a two-year period of daily merged Pathfinder data sets at 100 km-resolution, placed in a multidimensional structure known as the "P-Cube." In addition, samples of full-resolution Special Sensor Microwave Imager(SSM/I), TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder (TOVS) and Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) (both the 1.25 km and 5 km products) Polar Pathfinder data sets are included, also in Equal-Area Scalable Earth-Grid (EASE-Grid), making it easy to compare parameters at multiple resolutions. The new product provides data for a wide range of polar climate research applications, but is especially keyed to the needs of investigators dealing with large-scale atmospheric changes, surface heat and mass balance studies, and sea ice modelling. This dataset is public