Global climate monitoring with the advanced microwave scanning radiometer (AMSR and AMSR-E)

Abstract

The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometers (AMSR) are dual-polarized microwave radiometers having channel frequencies ranging from 6.9 GHz to 89 GHz, and were designed to retrieve global information on precipitation, sea surface temperature, oceanic surface winds and integrated cloud water and water vapor, vegetation, sea ice, and snow cover. Two AMSR's have been built by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation for the National Space Development Agency of Japan. The first instrument (AMSR-E) was launched in May 2002 on NASA's Aqua satellite. The second will be launched on the Japanese ADEOS-II satellite. The AMSRs provide the highest spatial resolution yet attained for a civilian spaceborne microwave sensor, with spatial resolutions ranging from 5 km at 89 GHz to 60 km at 6.9 GHz. A distributed array of six (seven for ADEOS-II AMSR) feedhorns are illuminated by a 1.6 m diameter offset parabolic reflector on AMSR-E, and a 2.0 m diameter reflector on AMSR for ADEOS-II. While National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) is responsible for the calibration of both AMSRs' data, for AMSR-E, science software for the retrieval of the various geophysical parameters has been independently developed by NASDA- and NASA-funded researchers. This software has been implemented for routine near-real time processing in both Japan and the United States. A future goal -- within two years -- is the development of joint algorithms for processing data from both AMSRs. Extensive product validation efforts, involving many different countries, are discussed. Initial data from AMSR-E are also presented.