Abstract:
The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) instrument on the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) Aqua satellite provides global passive microwave measurements of terrestrial, oceanic, and atmospheric variables for the investigation of water and energy cycles. Measurements of ocean variables improve our understanding of a wide variety of hydrological and radiative ... processes, including air-sea and air-ice interactions. The Level-2B ocean swath product (AE_Ocean) contains Sea Surface Temperature (SST) at 56 km and 38 km resolution, near-surface wind speed at 38 km and 21 km resolution, columnar water vapor at 21 km resolution, columnar cloud liquid water at 12 km resolution, and quality flags. All variables were measured over oceans and are generated from the Wentz algorithm. The Level-3 daily product (AE_DyOcn), weekly product (AE_WkOcn), and monthly product (AE_MoOcn) include SST, near-surface wind speed, columnar water vapor, and columnar cloud liquid water over oceans in a 0.25 degree by 0.25 degree grid, generated from AE_Ocean. Data are stored in Hierarchical Data Format - Earth Observing System (HDF-EOS) format, and are available from 19 June 2002 to the present via FTP.
Quality
Each HDF-EOS file contains core metadata with QA metadata flags that are set by the Science Investigator-led Processing System (SIPS) at the Global Hydrology and Climate Center (GHCC) prior to delivery to NSIDC. A separate metadata file (.xml file extension) is also delivered to NSIDC with the HDF-EOS file; it contains the same information as the core metadata. Three levels of quality assessment ... (QA) are conducted with the AMSR-E Level - 2 and -3 products: automatic, operational, and science QA. If a product does not fail QA, it is ready to be used for higher-level processing, browse generation, active science QA, archive, and distribution. If a granule fails QA, SIPS does not send the granule to NSIDC until it is reprocessed. Level-3 products that fail QA are never delivered to NSIDC (Conway 2002). The Level-2B ocean files contain three data elements related to quality assurance: the Scan_quality_flag, the Ocean_summary_quality_flag, and the Ocean_products_quality_flag.
Conway, D. 2002. Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - EOS Quality Assurance Plan. Huntsville, AL: Global Hydrology and Climate Center.
Meissner, Thomas and Frank J. Wentz. 2004. The Complex Dielectric Constant of Pure and Sea Water from Microwave Satellite Observations. IEEE TGARS 42(9): 1836 Â 1849.
Meissner, Thomas and Frank J. Wentz. 2006. Ocean Retrievals for WindSat: Radiative ... Transfer Model, Algorithm, Validation. CD with proceedings of the 9th Specialist Meeting on Microwave Radiometry and Remote Sensing Applications. San Juan, Puerto Rico, 28 February  03 March 2006. IEEE Catalog no. 06EX1174C.
Meissner, Thomas and Frank J. Wentz. 2002. Analysis of the Ocean Surface Wind Direction Signal in Passive Microwave Brightness Temperatures. IEEE TGARS 40(6): 1230 Â 1240.
Wentz, F. J., and T. Meissner. 2007. Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document: AMSR-E Ocean Algorithms Supplement 1. Santa Rosa, California, USA: Remote Sensing Systems. (View PDF File)
Wentz, F. and T. Meissner. 2000. AMSR Ocean Algorithm. Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document, Version 2. Santa Rosa, CA, USA: Remote Sensing Systems.
Wentz, Frank J. 1997. A Well-calibrated Ocean Algorithm for SSM/I. Journal of Geophy. Res 102: 8703 Â 8718. For more information regarding related publications, see the Research Using AMSR-E Data Web page.
