GCOM-C Satellite Radiance Data At 1km Resolution

JAXA's GCOM-C satellite provides Level 1B top-of-atmosphere radiance data from its SGLI sensor at 1 km spatial resolution. The dataset supports long-term global observations across 28 geophysical variables related to atmosphere, land, ocean, and cryosphere. The satellite was launched in December 2017 and the data is intended to improve the accuracy of global warming predictions.

Use Cases

• Analyzing aerosol distribution and vegetation indices using calibrated spectral radiance values across shortwave and thermal infrared bands.
• Modeling solar irradiance effects on surface features by incorporating stored solar azimuth and solar zenith angle data for each pixel.
• Correcting for satellite viewing geometry in analysis pipelines using band-specific satellite azimuth and satellite zenith angle information.
• Classifying land and water coverage for regional studies using the appended land/water flag and geometric latitude/longitude coordinates.
• Assessing data quality for specific observations by applying the appended QA flag corresponding to each observation image.

Strengths

• Spatial resolution of 1 km, with 250 m data also available for finer analysis.
• Wide swath coverage of 1150 km in visible bands and 1400 km in infrared bands per observation.
• Data is geometrically corrected and projected to a common L1B reference coordinate system for consistency.
• Includes comprehensive geometric information (latitude, longitude, angles) stored at 10-pixel intervals.

Limitations

• Specific row count, file size, and temporal coverage of the archive are not provided.
• Data is provided as Scaled Integer (SI) format, requiring conversion to physical units for scientific analysis.
• Geometric information for satellite angles is stored per band, which may complicate multi-band pixel alignment.

Provenance

Source

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)

Collection Method

Data collected by the SGLI sensor onboard the Sun-synchronous GCOM-C satellite, processed from Level 1A to calibrated Level 1B radiance products.

Time Range

Observations began after the satellite launch on December 23, 2017; specific end date not provided.

Geography

Global coverage from the satellite's orbit.