AMSR Series in A-Train- JAXA Products and Services for AMSR-E Keiji Imaoka and Akira Shibata
Earth Observation Research Center
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
A-Train User Workshop
October 25, 2010
New Orleans, USA

Advanced Microwave ScanningRadiometer for EOS (AMSR-E)
 Mission status- Continuous observation over 8-years after thelaunch on May 4, 2002 onboard NASA’s EOS
Aqua satellite.
- Stable brightness temperature records, except
the loss of 89GHz-A data from November 2004.

 Instrument characteristics- Multi-frequency microwave radiometer, which iscapable of observing various parameters
related to water (developed by JAXA).
- High-spatial resolution compared to existing
instruments by large size antenna.
- C-band (6.9GHz) channels for estimating SST
and soil moisture.
- Afternoon (1:30 pm) equatorial crossing timethat is currently unique for microwave
radiometers.

Pre-launch AMSR-E in TsukubaSpace Center

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AMSR-E Operation Status
End of Nominal Ops.
89GHz A anomaly

Swap ADE A to B

Radiometer sensitivity [K]Torque increase began

GCOM-W1 Launch(into A-Train)

Page 3

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Scanning Geometry
Rotating direction
Along-track
direction
Off NadirAngle
47.5 deg.
IncidenceAngle
55 deg.

(N+2)
th

(N+1)
th

N th
89
B

Scanning Geometry

89
A

89GHz Multi-horn Scan
4Overlap with CloudSat

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Processing Levels
Level

Contents

Level-1A• Swath data with geolocation information• Scene counts• ½ orbit starting from northern/southern-most latitudes

Level-1B• Swath data with geolocation information• Brightness temperatures• ½ orbit starting from northern/southern-most latitudes

Level-2• Swath data with geolocation information• Geophysical parameters (8 parameters)• ½ orbit starting from northern/southern-most latitudes

Level-3• Grid data with 0.25 degrees (or 25km) resolution• Brightness temperatures and geophysical parameters• Daily and monthly temporal average• Equidistant Cylindrical and Polar Stereo Projection• All products are in HDF4 format, which can be accessed and read by using NCSA HDF
Library. The “AMSR Data Input Toolkit (ADIT)” is also available.
* Subset and mapped products are available for Level-1B and 2, with approximately 3000 by
3000km areas with designated center geolocation.

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Standard Geophysical Products
Products
Brightness
temperature

Area

Spatialresolution

Geophysical parameter

Global

5-50kmIntegrated
water vapor

Over global
ocean

15km

Integrated
cloud liquid
water

Over global
ocean

15km

Precipitation

Tropical extratropical

15km

Sea surface
temperatureOver global
ocean

50km

Sea surface
wind speed

Over global
ocean

15km

Sea iceconcentration

High
latitude
ocean

15km

Snow depth

Land area

30km

Soil moistureLand area

50km

Water vapor

Cloud liquid
water

Snow waterequivalent
Soil moisture

Precipitation

Sea surface
temperature
Sea surface
wind speed
Sea ice concentration

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Level-1B Swath (AMSR)

Ocean

Precipitating Clouds

Land

89BH 89BV 89AH 89AV 52.8V 50.3V

36H

36V

23H

23V

18H

18V

10H

10V

6H

6V
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Level-2 Swath (AMSR)

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Level-3 Daily Grids

Sea Surface Temperature

Precipitation

Sea Surface Wind Speed

Soil Moisture Content

Total Precipitable Water

Snow Depth

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Level-3 Monthly Grids

Integrated water vapor

Integrated cloud liquid water

Sea surface wind speed

Precipitation
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GSMaP Global rainfall map by merging TRMM, AMSR-E,
and other satellite information.
 0.1-degree lat/lon grid, hourly products.
 Available 4-hr after observation.
 Browse images, 24-hr animation, displaying by
Google Earth.
 Binary data are also available via password
protected ftp site.
 Based on JST/CREST GSMaP algorithm.
http://sharaku.eorc.jaxa.jp/GSMaP/

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Monitoring Soil Moisture
AMSR-E is continuously observing
the Earth after the launch on May 4,
2002 onboard EOS Aqua satellite.

Wet

Norm

Dry

 Serious crop damages have been reported
due to catastrophic drought over westernpart of Russia in 2010.
 AMSR-E soil moisture is well capturing thisphenomena and indicates that the drought
already began from April-May period.
Images and data provided by H. Fujii of JAXA/EORC.

Black: Nominal trend (2002-2009 average)
Red : Trend in 201013

Monitoring Sea Ice Extent
Arctic Sea Ice Extent: 7,522,500 km2 (October 24, 2010)

Arctic sea ice extent is monitored on a daily basis by AMSR-E
http://www.ijis.iarc.uaf.edu/en/index.htm
CSV data can be downloaded from the web site.
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Microwave and IR SST Combination
 C-band (6.9GHz) is indispensable frequency for retrieving SST and soil
moisture. Microwave measurement can provide cloud-through frequent
SST mapping.
 Microwave and IR observations complement each other in terms ofspatial resolution and error sources. Importance and needs of Merged
SST from microwave and IR are increasing.
GLI SST on April 10, 2003

AMSR SST on April 10, 2003

SST images around east coast of Japan on April 10, 2003, observed by
GLI (left) and AMSR (right). Difference of spatial resolution and cloud
effect are clearly seen in the figures.

Image of the New Generation Sea Surface
Temperature (NGSST) for Open Ocean on
May 10, 2005. Provided by NGSST
development group led by Professor
Kawamura of Tohoku University.
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Research Product: All-Weather SSW

Area of 15m/s winds or more
Area of 25m/s winds or more

 AMSR-E 6.925 and 10.65 GHz
data can be used to retrieve
sea surface wind speed inside
tropical cyclones.
 The all-weather sea surface
wind speed product will findwide application tometeorological services.

Typhoon track

AMSR-E all-weather ocean wind speed product (color shading)and the best-track data (circles, linear interpolation of the 12 and18 UTC best-track data to 17 UTC) of Typhoon SHANSHAN at 17
UTC on 13 September 2006. The best-track data was determined
without any AMSR-E data. (Courtesy of Shuji Nishimura.)

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Products and Services
 Standard Product- http://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/about/distribution/index.html
All products, except ALOS and GOSAT, can be used by registration.

 Research Product (not limited to below), Browse Images- AMSR-E
http://sharaku.eorc.jaxa.jp/AMSR/index.html
http://sharaku.eorc.jaxa.jp/cgi-bin/amsr/pmips/quicklooks.cgi (testing)- GSMaP
http://sharaku.eorc.jaxa.jp/GSMaP/index_j.htm- IARC-JAXA Information System
http://www.ijis.iarc.uaf.edu/en/index.htm

 Tools- Earth Observation Data Viewer and ADIT
http://sharaku.eorc.jaxa.jp/AMSR/tool/index.html
17How to get JAXA’s EO data
 EORC Homepage: http://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/

Data Distribution
Service[Standard Product]

Research Project
Sites[Research Product]
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Top page of Data Distribution Service
EOC/EOIS:
Earth Observation Information System

EOIS(Earth Observation
Interface System)

There is a category of users.

All users can download
JAXA’s Earth
Observation data (except
for ALOS and GOSAT)
after user resistration.
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Thank you for your attention.

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