Aqua/AMSR-E L3 AMSR2 Format Soil Moisture Content (1-Day, 0.25 deg)

Product Summary

Aqua/AMSR-E L3 AMSR2 Format Soil Moisture Content (1-Day, 0.25 deg) dataset is obtained from the AMSR-E sensor onboard Aqua and produced by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
Aqua of NASA was launched on May 4th, 2002 in Sun-synchronous sub-recurrent Orbit. Aqua observes various kinds of physical phenomena related to water and energy circulation from space. Aqua data promoted the research activities for interactions between the atmosphere, oceans and lands, and their effects on climate changes.
AMSR-E scans the Earth's surface by mechanically rotating the antenna and acquires radiance data of the Earth's surface. Each frequency band is monitored by vertical and horizontal polarized wave. It conically scans and keeps an angle of incidence on the earth surface (a nominal of 55 degrees) and accomplishes a swath width of about 1450 km. The AMSR-E reached its limit to maintain the antenna rotation speed necessary for regular observations, and the AMSR-E restarted its observation in slow rotation mode (2 rotations per minute) on December 4, 2012. However, the AMSR-E reached its limit to maintain the antenna rotation speed necessary for slow rotation mode and it automatically halted its observation and rotation on December 4, 2015.
Level 3 data inputs level 1B and level 2 data and projected to the map in accordance with the specified projection technique (Equi-Rectangular (EQR) or Polar Stereographic (PS)), and then the arithmetic average of 1 day is computed on each grid. Moreover, level 3 data for 1 day of each geophysical parameter is inputted for 1 month, arithmetic average of 1 month is computed on each grid, as the same way as 1 day average calculation.
This product includes averaged Soil Moisture Content (SMC). Among the water surface emissivity at AMSR observing frequencies, the emissivity is larger at the higher frequency than at the lower one for both polarizations. The index, the discrepancy between the brightness temperatures at two frequencies divided by one at lower frequency, can be used as an index for surface wetness. The physical quantity unit is %.
The provided format is HDF5. The spatial resolution is 0.25 deg. The statistical period is 1 day. The current version of the product is "Version 8". The projection method is EQR and PS. The generation unit is global.

Platform

Aqua

Sensor

AMSR-E

Coverage

Temporal Coverage

2002-06-01 to 2011-10-05

Spatial Coverage

Bounding Rectangle
(90.0°, -180.0°, -90.0°, 180.0°)

Resolution

0.25 deg

Location

• GLOBAL > GLOBAL LAND