AMSR2 Daily Brightness Temperature Grids at 36GHz

GCOM-W/AMSR2 L3 Brightness Temperature (36Ghz) data provides daily averaged microwave brightness temperature measurements from the AMSR2 sensor onboard the JAXA GCOM-W satellite. The dataset contains global 0.25-degree grid data, including separate values for horizontal and vertical polarizations, standard deviation, and data counts. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) produces this data, with the satellite launched in May 2012.

Use Cases

• Estimate sea surface temperature and wind speed by analyzing the Brightness_Temperature_(H) and Brightness_Temperature_(V) polarization difference.
• Monitor global soil moisture trends by modeling the relationship between daily Brightness_Temperature values at 36GHz and land surface emissivity.
• Detect and classify sea ice extent using the spatial patterns in the 0.25-degree gridded Brightness_Temperature data over polar regions.
• Assess data quality and uncertainty for downstream products by utilizing the Standard_Deviation and Average_Number columns provided in monthly products.
• Identify regions with insufficient observational coverage by filtering pixels where the Total_Number indicates a low count of physical quantity data within the grid.

Strengths

• Global coverage with a 0.25-degree spatial grid resolution.
• Provides separate data for satellite ascending and descending tracks.
• Includes quality indicators like Standard_Deviation, Average_Number, and Total_Number.

Limitations

• Missing values are encoded as 65535, and error values range from 65531 to 65534, requiring specific handling.
• The Standard_Deviation column is only available in the monthly statistical product, not the daily.
• Temporal coverage and update recency are unknown from the provided information.

Provenance

Source

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)

Collection Method

Calculated from Level 1B and Level 2 sensor data from the AMSR2 instrument on the GCOM-W satellite, using a simple arithmetic mean for daily and monthly grids.

Time Range

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Freshness

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Geography

Global