The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) is a modified version
of AMSR that flew on ADEOS-II. NASDA provides the instrument for
flight on board NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) Aqua platform. AMSR-E
is indispensable for Aqua's mission, which is dedicated to the
observation of climate and hydrology.
AMSR-E is a multifrequency, dual-polarized microwave radiometer that
detects faint microwave emissions from the Earth's surface and
atmosphere. Various geophysical parameters can be retrieved, including
water vapor, cloud liquid water, precipitation, sea surface temperature,
sea surface wind speed, sea ice concentration, snow water equivalent,
and soil moisture. Global and continuous observation is performed with
fine spatial resolution by using one of the largest ever microwave
radiometer antenna. The long-term geophysical record will play an
important role in climate change monitoring and will provide valuable
information for understanding the Earth's climate system, including
water and energy circulation. Near real-time products will be used to
investigate satellite data assimilation into weather forecasting models
and to contribute to improved forecasting accuracy.
AMSR aboard ADEOS-II (AMSR-E aboard Aqua) will be placed in a morning
(afternoon) orbit. Frequent sampling realized by this combination
enables us to observe rapidly changing phenomena as well as to obtain
information on the diurnal variation of geophysical parameters.
AMSR-E aboard Aqua is a joint project with NASA as well as an
international activity in which scientists and engineers worldwide
collaborate in algorithm development and data validation.
AMSR-E
is a modified version of AMSR that flew aboard ADEOS-II and is intended
to fly on the EOS Aqua platform. Major modifications include scaling
down the antenna size (from 2.0m to 1.6m) due to the limitation of the
fairing size, employing a deployable antenna system, and removing the
50GHz channels. Since Aqua's orbit altitude of approximately 700km is
lower than that of ADEOS-II, the spatial resolution remains nearly
unaffected by this down sizing of the antenna. Information on the oxygen
absorption line complex in the 50- to 60-GHz band is provided by the
Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU), one of the Aqua satellite
mission instrument.