GCOM-W/AMSR2 L3 Sea Ice Concentration (1-Month, 0.1 deg)

Product Summary

GCOM-W/AMSR2 L3 Sea Ice Concentration (1-Month, 0.1 deg) dataset is obtained from the AMSR2 sensor onboard GCOM-W and produced by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
GCOM-W was launched by the H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 21 (H-IIA F21) at 1:39 a.m. on May 18th, 2012 (Japan Standard Time, JST) and inserted into a planned position on the "A-Train" orbit. GCOM-W equipped with AMSR2 takes measurements at multiple microwave frequencies and multiple polarizations of weak electromagnetic waves in the microwave band radiated from the Earth’s surface and the atmosphere. AMSR2 has swath of 1450 km and 7 microwave bands. The observation data will enable the creation of long-term trustworthy data sets of global physical amount.
The Level 3 process uses as its inputs one day's worth of Level 1B data and Level 2 data and calculates, by taking a simple arithmetic mean, the daily statistical mean value at each grid point in the specified mapping projection method (either equi-rectangular or polar stereo). Furthermore, Level 3 processing takes one month's worth of each geophysical parameter's Level 3 daily statistical mean values and calculates the monthly statistical mean value at each grid point using a simple arithmetic mean in the same way as the daily statistical mean calculation. The statistical means are calculated separately for observations along the satellite's ascending and descending tracks.
This dataset includes averaged Sea Ice Concentration (SIC), Standard Deviation (Standard_Deviation), Average Number (Average_Number) and Total Number (Total_Number).
SIC is percentage of sea ice coverage within target ocean area. Coverage of the product is over the ocean around Arctic and Antarctic Sea, and unit is [%]. There is no sea ice within pixel area when sea ice concentration is 0 %, and all pixel area is covered by sea ice when it shows 100 %. We can learn distribution of sea ice immediately using this product, and it will become more and more important because of recent decrease of Arctic sea ice cover.
Standard_Deviation is standard deviation value for each pixel. This item is only stored in monthly product.
Average_Number is the number of valid physical quantity data (except error and missing) which was used to determine "Geophysical Data".
Total_Number is the number of physical quantity data included in the grid (include valid and invalid).
The provided format is HDF5. The Sampling resolution is 0.1degree grid. The statistical period is 1 month. The current version of the product is Version 3. The Version 2 is also available. The projection method is PS. The generation unit is global.

Platform

GCOM-W

Sensor

AMSR2

Coverage

Temporal Coverage

2012-07-02 to Present

Spatial Coverage

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

Resolution

0.1 deg

Location

• GEOGRAPHIC REGION > POLAR