In recent years, polar orbiting satellites have greatly increased the number of meteorological measurements in the Arctic, passing over the pole nearly once every hour. The Improved Initialization Inversion (3I) algorithm, which has been designed for retrieving meteorological parameters from observations of the satellites of the TIROS-N series, has been applied to 17 passes covering the European Arctic in order to check its ability to provide reliable temperature profiles in polar areas. Issues such as sea ice/cloud detection and better estimation of the tropopause level have been addressed and are discussed. Validation of temperature profiles through comparison with radiosonde reports and conventional analyses show the good quality of the retrievals. This quality is also illustrated by the early detection of two storms: one having gone undetected by the standard synoptic network, and one having been incorrectly described by conventional products, confirming the new opportunity offered by satellites to improve our knowledge of polar meteorology. ¿1991 American Geophysical Union