THE CEOS DATABASE : MISSION, INSTRUMENTS AND MEASUREMENTS

AMSR Instrument

Measurements and Applications

Measurements of water vapour, cloud liquid water, precipitation, winds, sea surface temperature, sea ice concentration, snow cover, soil moisture.

Instrument Summary

Full Name

Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer

Status

No longer operational

Instrument Agencies

JAXA

Maturity

Instrument Type

Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave)

Geometry

Conical scanning

Instrument Technology

Multi-purpose imaging MW radiometer

Sampling

Imaging

Data Access

Data Format

Performance Summary

Resolution

5 - 50 km (dependent on frequency)

Swath

1600 km

Accuracy

Sea surface temparature: 0.5 K, sea ice cover: 10%, cloud liquid water: 0.05 kg/m2, precipitation rate: 10%, water vapour: 3.5 kg/m2 through total column, sea surface wind speed 1.5 m/s

Waveband

Microwave: 6.925 GHz, 10.65 GHz, 18.7 GHz, 23.8 GHz, 36.5 GHz, 50.3 GHz, 52.8 GHz, 89.0 GHz

MWIR (~3.0 µm - ~6.0 µm)

Instrument Missions

ADEOS-II - Advanced Earth Observing Satellite - II (2002 - 2003)

Instrument Measurements

Thematic Links

Global Climate Observing System Essential Climate Variables (GCOS ECVs)

*ECV*	*Description*	*Product(s)*	*ECV Inventory 3.0 Record(s)*
Cloud Properties	click here	click here	search ECV Inventory records
Precipitation	click here	click here	search ECV Inventory records
Sea Ice	click here	click here	search ECV Inventory records
Sea Surface Temperature	click here	click here	search ECV Inventory records
Snow	click here	click here	search ECV Inventory records
Soil Moisture	click here	click here	search ECV Inventory records
Water Vapour (upper air)	click here	click here	search ECV Inventory records

Category	Parameter
Atmospheric Humidity Fields	Atmospheric specific humidity (TC)
Cloud particle properties and profile	Cloud liquid water (column/profile)
Liquid water and precipitation rate	Precipitation intensity at the surface (liquid or solid)
	Precipitation index (daily cumulative)
Ocean surface winds	Wind speed over sea surface (horizontal)
Sea ice cover, edge and thickness	Sea-ice cover
Snow cover, edge and depth	Snow cover
	Snow water equivalent
Soil moisture	Soil moisture at the surface
Surface temperature (ocean)	Sea surface temperature