Twelve-channel passive-microwave radiometer data measures vertically and horizontally polarized brightness temperatures at six frequencies from 6.925 to 89.0 GHz. Spatial resolution varies from 5.4 km at 89.0 GHz to 56 km at 6.9 GHz. The instrument, operated by AMD_KOPRI, collected data throughout the 2008 calendar year.
Use Cases
- Retrieve sea ice concentration maps by analyzing the polarization difference between 36.5 GHz and 18.7 GHz channels.
- Estimate global soil moisture levels using the 10.65 GHz channel's sensitivity to surface water content.
- Monitor atmospheric water vapor and cloud liquid water by exploiting the 23.8 GHz and 36.5 GHz channels' absorption properties.
- Develop land surface temperature products from lower frequency channels like 6.925 GHz and 10.65 GHz.
- Validate climate models by comparing observed brightness temperature time series from all twelve channels against simulated data.
Strengths
- Provides dual-polarization (vertical and horizontal) measurements at all six frequencies.
- Offers a wide range of spatial resolutions from 5.4 km to 56 km across its frequency bands.
- Calibrated using cosmic background radiation and an on-board warm target for accuracy.
Limitations
- Data is from a single year (2008), limiting long-term trend analysis.
- Spatial resolution is coarse (minimum 5.4 km), unsuitable for fine-scale local studies.
- No column-level metadata is provided, complicating direct analysis of the raw data structure.
Provenance
- Source
- NASA Earthdata via AMD_KOPRI
- Collection Method
- Collected by the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) satellite instrument using a 1.6-meter offset parabolic reflector scanning at a 55-degree Earth incidence angle.
- Time Range
- 2008
- Freshness
- null
- Geography
- Global