3:00 PM - 3:15 PM
[ACG46-12] Five years Global Water Cycle Observation by the Global Change Observation Mission - Water (GCOM-W)
★Invited papers
Keywords:satellite remote sensing, water cycle, microwave radiometer
The Global Change Observation Mission (GCOM) is consists of two medium sized satellites to provide comprehensive information of the Essential Climate Variables (ECV) of atmosphere, ocean, land, cryosphere, and ecosystem. The GCOM-W (Water) or “SHIZUKU” satellite that is carrying the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2), which was launched from JAXA Tanegashima Space Center on May 18, 2012 (JST); and GCOM-C (Climate) satellite that will carry the Second Generation Global Imager (SGLI) and is scheduled to be launched in Japanese Fiscal Year of 2017.
AMSR2 on board the GCOM-W satellite is multi-frequency, total-power microwave radiometer system with dual polarization channels for all frequency bands, and a successor of JAXA’s Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) on the NASA's Aqua satellite, which was launched in May 2002, and completed its operation in December 2015. Basic concept of AMSR2 is almost identical to that of AMSR-E. AMSR2 standard products, including brightness temperature and eight geophysical parameters that related to water cycle, have been introduced to many operational and science applications quickly. AMSR2 standard products are available from the GCOM-W1 Data Providing Service (https://gcom-w1.jaxa.jp/). The latest version of AMSR2 products is Ver. 2.0 (as of February 2017) that was released in March 2015, and JAXA is planning to release new Version 3 standard products for several geophysical parameters, including sea surface temperature and sea surface wind speed, which do not satisfy required standard accuracies in Ver.2, in March 2017. With release of Ver.3 standard products, all AMSR2 standard products satisfy required standard accuracy and achieve mission success criteria of the GCOM-W mission.
AMSR2 products are used in various operational and research fields, including weather forecast, typhoon analysis, global rainfall map, ocean monitoring, fisheries, sea ice extent monitoring and maritime navigation in polar regions. At the meeting, we will highlight major topics of achievements done by the GCOM-W mission in five years.
Since designed mission life of the GCOM-W satellite is five years and will be achieve in May 2017, we have started discussion of possible follow-on mission with various user communities as well as expansion of application of AMSR2 and follow-on data in new fields.
AMSR2 on board the GCOM-W satellite is multi-frequency, total-power microwave radiometer system with dual polarization channels for all frequency bands, and a successor of JAXA’s Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) on the NASA's Aqua satellite, which was launched in May 2002, and completed its operation in December 2015. Basic concept of AMSR2 is almost identical to that of AMSR-E. AMSR2 standard products, including brightness temperature and eight geophysical parameters that related to water cycle, have been introduced to many operational and science applications quickly. AMSR2 standard products are available from the GCOM-W1 Data Providing Service (https://gcom-w1.jaxa.jp/). The latest version of AMSR2 products is Ver. 2.0 (as of February 2017) that was released in March 2015, and JAXA is planning to release new Version 3 standard products for several geophysical parameters, including sea surface temperature and sea surface wind speed, which do not satisfy required standard accuracies in Ver.2, in March 2017. With release of Ver.3 standard products, all AMSR2 standard products satisfy required standard accuracy and achieve mission success criteria of the GCOM-W mission.
AMSR2 products are used in various operational and research fields, including weather forecast, typhoon analysis, global rainfall map, ocean monitoring, fisheries, sea ice extent monitoring and maritime navigation in polar regions. At the meeting, we will highlight major topics of achievements done by the GCOM-W mission in five years.
Since designed mission life of the GCOM-W satellite is five years and will be achieve in May 2017, we have started discussion of possible follow-on mission with various user communities as well as expansion of application of AMSR2 and follow-on data in new fields.