An overview of the cryosphere products and validation plans for GCOM-C1/SGLI observations

Abstract

The “Global Change Observation Mission-Climate” (GCOM-C) is a project of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) for the global and long-term observation of the Earth environment. The GCOM-C is a part of the JAXA’s GCOM mission which consists of two satellite series, GCOM-C and GCOM-W (Water), spanning three generations in order to perform uniform and stable global observations for 13 years. GCOM-C carries a multi-spectral optical radiometer named Second Generation Global Imager (SGLI), which will have special features of wide spectral coverage from 380nm to 12μm, a high spatial resolution of 250m, a field of view exceeding 1000km, two-direction simultaneous observation, and polarization observation. The GCOM-C mission aims to improve our knowledge on the global carbon cycle and radiation budget through high-accuracy observation of global vegetation, ocean color, temperature, cloud, aerosol, and snow and ice. As for the cryosphere products, not only snow and ice cover extent but also snow physical parameters are retrieved from SGLI data such as snow grain sizes at several surface levels (shallow layer, sub-surface layer, and the top surface), temperature, and mass fraction of impurity mixed in snow layer and so on. These snow physical parameters are important factors that determine spectral albedo and radiation budget at the snow surface. Thus it is essential to monitor those parameters from space in order to better understand snow metamorphosis and melting process and also to study the response of snow and sea-ice cover extent in the Polar Regions to a climate forcing such as global warming. This paper will summarize the SGLI cryospheric products and validation plans.