Status of AMSR-E and ICESat/GLAS at NSIDC Melinda Marquis NSIDC Product Team Lead, AMSR-E, AMSR-E Validation and GLAS June 3, 2004.

Status of AMSR-E and ICESat/GLAS at NSIDC

Melinda Marquis

NSIDC Product Team Lead,

AMSR-E, AMSR-E Validation and GLAS

June 3, 2004

Polar DAAC Advisory Group

Melinda Marquis, NSIDC DAAC June 3, 20042

Outline

Status of:

• AMSR-E

• ICESat/GLAS

AMSR-E (and other, much less important stuff) on Aqua Satellite.

GLAS on ICESat. Graphic is courtesy of Ball Aerospace.



Aqua/AMSR-E Outline•Aqua/AMSR-E Status of Current Operations

•Ordering AMSR-E Data: via EDG, Data Pool, SNOWI and V0 sidads

•Tools for AMSR-E data users

•AMSR-E Distribution Stats

L2A Brightness Temperatures

The AMSR-E sensor measures microwave energy radiated from the Earth’s atmosphere and surface at six frequencies (6.9, 10.7, 18.7, 23.8, 36.5, and 89.0 GHz) and two polarizations. These radiance measurements are used to compute brightness temperatures, which are then resampled to provide data on a set of common spatial resolutions. Brightness temperatures are then used to produce the other geophysical products. Image courtesy of John Maurer, NSIDC.



AMSR-E Current Operations

We’re ingesting and distributing:• L1A Raw Observation Counts• L2A TBs• L2B and L3 Products:

Rain Ocean Land/Soil moisture Snow

Sea Ice L3 Daily 12.5 Km Sea Ice Concentration

Because Arctic sea ice consists largely of multiyear ice floes while Antarctic sea ice is primarily seasonal, different algorithms for computing sea ice concentration are used in these two regions. Ice temperature and snow cover are also computed for sea ice. Images courtesy of John Maurer, NSIDC.



Ordering AMSR-E Data from NSIDC

• Data Pool: All AMSR-E products are retained for 160 days (at the present).

• EOS Data Gateway: This interface provides access to the entire archive of data.

• Search 'N Order Interface (SNOWI): This tool provides a quick and simple way to search and order limited products from NSIDC and other Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs).

• Preliminary FTP Data: Registration is required to access the most recent eight days of data via FTP. These data are on a V0 (non-ECS) server.

http://nsidc.org/data/amsr/order.html

L3 Monthly Snow Water Equivalent (SWE)AMSR-E can be used to measure snow cover area as well as its volume, or “snow water equivalent” (SWE). Successful estimation of SWE is still at a developmental stage and requires model estimations of snow grain size and density. Image courtesy of John Maurer, NSIDC.



AMSR-E Data: Standard and Preliminary (Near-Real-Time) Data Products

STANDARD DATA PRODUCTS

• L0 Science, Engineering, and GBAD Data• L1A Raw Sensor Counts• L2A Swath Brightness Temperatures (Tbs)• L2B Ocean Products• L2B Soil Moisture Products• L2B Rainfall Products• L3 Daily Ocean Grids• L3 Weekly Ocean Grids• L3 Monthly Ocean Grids• L3 Daily Snow Water Equivalent EASE-Grid• L3 5-Day Snow Water Equivalent EASE-Grid• L3 Monthly Snow Water Equivalent EASE-Grid• L3 Daily 6.25 km 89 GHz Tbs Polar Grids • L3 Daily 12.5 km Tbs, sea ice concentrations, &

snow depths over sea ice • L3 Daily 25 km Tbs, sea ice concentrations &

sea ice temperatures• L3 Soil Moisture Products• L3 Monthly Rainfall Grids• Browse

• ***• ***• L2A Swath Brightness Temperatures (Tbs)• L2B Ocean Products• L2B Soil Moisture Products• L2B Rainfall Products• L3 Daily Ocean Grids• ***• ***• L3 Daily Snow Water Equivalent EASE-Grid• ***• ***• L3 Daily 6.25 km 89 GHz Tbs Polar Grids • L3 Daily 12.5 km Tbs, sea ice concentrations, &

snow depths over sea ice • L3 Daily 25 km Tbs, sea ice concentrations & sea

ice temperatures• L3 Soil Moisture Products• ***• ***

NEAR-REAL-TIME PRODUCTS



Tools for AMSR-E Data• AMSR-E Tools Page at

http://nsidc.org/data/amsr/tools.html

• AMSR-E Swath to Grid Toolkit (AS2GT):

http://nsidc.org/data/tools/pmsdt/as2gt.html

• HEW subsets L2A, L2B and L3 products (minus the

L2B soil moisture, which is point format)

• Land masks: AMSR-E land masks incorporated into the 6.25, 12.5, and 25 km resolution sea ice products are available as separate arrays in HDF format at each resolution. The land masks are in a polar stereographic projection.

• Hierarchical Data Format - Earth Observing System (HDF-EOS): NSIDC created this site to answer common questions about HDF-EOS and to provide simple methods for working with the HDF-EOS format. Tools are provided to convert from HDF-EOS to binary, and to dump HDF metadata into ASCII text.

L3 Daily Soil Moisture

Microwave observations are sensitive to soil moisture through the effects of moisture on the dielectric constant and hence emissivity of the soil. In determining soil moisture, the model inversions include corrections for variable vegetation water content and surface temperature effects. Image courtesy of John Maurer, NSIDC.



AMSR-E Distribution Statistics

L3 Monthly Ocean

Radiative transfer models are used at and above the ocean surface to relate brightness temperatures to a suite of geophysical parameters based on microwave signals from the surface (sea surface temperature and wind speed) and the atmosphere (water vapor and cloud liquid water). Image courtesy of John Maurer, NSIDC.

Data Distributed via EDGData Type # Users #GransAMSREL1A 32 468AE_L2A 72 65,132AE_Ocean 2 2,415 AE_Rain 3 2,342 AE_Land 7 2,968AE_SI6 4 139AE_SI12 6 206AE_SI25 5 167AE_DySNO 10 280AE_5DSNO 8 34AE_MoSNO 2 4AE_DyOcn 112AE_WkOcn 16AE_MoOcn 1 4AE_Land3 17 408AE_RnGd 1 5Prelim 56

NOTE: These are not unique users.

NOTE: The inconsistency with the AE_DYOcn and AE_WkOcn is likely caused by internal testers, who aren’t counted in these stats.

Thanks to Donna Scott and Amanda Paserba for stats.

Top 3 AMSRE products from data pool AE_L2A distribution of 64,386 granules *AE_L1A distribution of 34,410 granules AE_Ocean distribution of 7,642 granules

*Example:

Total L2A from ECS (EDG + DP) =

129,518 granules distributed



AMSR-E Distribution Statistics (cont)

L3 Monthly Rainfall

The ocean provides a relatively homogeneous background which is ideal for observing rainfall via its emissivity. The high and variable emissivity of land surfaces, however, complicates the observed signal so that rainfall observations are problematic and must be inferred empirically. Image courtesy of John Maurer, NSIDC.

FOREIGN GOVERNMENT 28 FOREIGN OTHER 29 FOREIGN UNIVERSITY 26 NASA 16 NOAA 7 US COMMERCIAL 5 US FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 8 US GENERAL PUBLIC 1 US OTHER 5

US UNIVERSITY 47

Total of 172 users

AMSR-E data are very popular. Pushing limits of ECS distribution capabilities.

Thanks to Michelle Holm for stats.



ICESat/GLAS Outline

• Status of current operations• Ordering GLAS Data: via EDG and Data Pool• Tools for GLAS data users• GLAS Distribution Statistics

A portion of an ICESat orbit is shown on the world map below. Each laser shot is color coded by elevation. The elevation profiles for selected portions of the orbit are shown in the accompanying figures, which use varying vertical scales. Image courtesy of Siri Jodha Singh Khalsa.

NunavutGulf of Boothia

Somerset IsCornwallis Is.



ICESat: Status of current operations

•First Release: 30 Oct 2003, we released an 8-day sample data set of GLA01-15 (rel#12); data are from Mar 12-20 2003 (laser#1)

•Available via EDG

•Second Release: 07 April 2004, Release-13 data are available for GLA01, and Release-14 data are available for GLA05, GLA06, and GLA12-15 (alt. Products) ; data are from Oct-Nov 2003 (33-day sample data set)

•Available via EDG and Data Pool

•Expect a third release ~ June 7:

•Atmospheric products GLA02, 07,8,9,10, and 11 (rel#17)

•Oct-Nov 2003 (same 33-day sample data set as second release on April 7)

•GLA16 composite altimetry-atmospheric product in HDF-EOS won’t be further developed

GLAS receiver/Optics breadboard telescope.

Photo courtesy of NASA/GSFC.



Ordering ICESat/GLAS Data from NSIDC

• Data Pool: The 33-day data set of altimetry products from laser #2 (Oct.-Nov. 2003) is currently in DP.

• EOS Data Gateway: This interface provides access

to the entire archive of data.

http://nsidc.org/data/icesat/order.html



ICESat/GLAS ToolsGLAS Tools Page at http://nsidc.org/data/icesat/tools.html

IDL visualizer (180 MB GZIP file): Read data from an ICESat/GLAS file and view graphical summaries of variables. A quick-start tutorial is available to help you get started viewing ICESat/GLAS data.

NSIDC GLAS Altimetry elevation extractor Tool (NGAT): Extract elevation and geoid data from GLAS altimetry products (GLA06 and GLA12-15) and output latitude, longitude, elevation, and geoid in ASCII columns. The NGAT runs under IDL (6.0 or greater) or the free IDL Virtual Machine (IDLVM) available from Research Systems Inc.

IDL reader: Read data from an ICESat/GLAS file and print all the variables in ASCII format.

Fortran 90 reader: This set of programs reads the data products and prints the parameters in integer format except for the flags, which are printed in hex. These are sample codes to help users develop their own applications. There is a separate program for each product type ("read_glaxx_file") where xx is the product number. All the source codes, makefiles, and executables are in the same directory. The programs are written in Fortan 90 and developed in a HP/UX 11.x runtime environment. A relatively modern Fortran 90 compiler is required.

IDL ellipsoid conversion: Convert between GLAS and WGS-84 ellipsoids.



L1B Calibrated attenuated backscatter data, GLA07This image shows smoke from the wildfire near Santa Barbara, CA, on October 28, 2003, in addition to other interesting features. This image illustrates the calibrated attenuated backscatter data from the GLAS instrument, which is found in the Level 1B data product (GLA07): GLAS/ICESat L1B Global Backscatter Data. Image courtesy of Steven Palm and Jim Spinhirne.

GLAS Distribution Statistics Data Distributed via EDG

Data Type # Users #Granules GLA01 8 v1: 458; v13: 8,095 GLA02 9 v1: 160 GLA03 2 v1: 49 GLA04 4 v1: 41 GLA05 7 v1: 428; v14: 207 GLA06 28 v1: 345; v14: 345 GLA07 18 v1: 122 GLA08 9 v1: 37 GLA09 10 v1: 28 GLA10 13 v1: 40 GLA11 11 v1: 29 GLA12 23 v1: 61; v14: 238 GLA13 9 v1: 56; v14: 40 GLA14 22 v1: 64; v14: 178 GLA15 2 v1: 7; v14: 3

Pollution in the SanJoaquin Valley

San Rafael Mountains(just north of Santa Barbara)

Marine Boundary Layer

Smoke

Clouds

Top 3 GLAS products from data pool GLA12 distribution of 184 granules GLA14 distribution of 50 granules GLA13 distribution of 38 granules

NOTE: These are not necessarily unique users

Thanks to Donna Scott and Amanda Paserba for stats.



GLAS Distribution Statistics (cont)

FOREIGN COMMERCIAL 3 FOREIGN GOVERNMENT 7 FOREIGN OTHER 12 FOREIGN UNIVERSITY 23 NASA 8OTHER 1 US COMMERCIAL 2 US FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 3 US OTHER 4 US STATE/LOCAL GOVERNMENT 1 US UNIVERSITY 24

L1B Calibrated attenuated backscatter data, GLA07

This image shows clouds ranging from the surface to the tropopause over Antarctica. The temperature structure near and above the tropopause (~12 km) on this day supports the existence of Polar Stratospheric Clouds (PSCs). Like the California wildfire image, this image also illustrates the calibrated attenuated backscatter data from the GLAS instrument, which are found in the GLA07 data product. Image courtesy of Steven Palm and Jim Spinhirne.

Total of 88 users

Thanks to Michelle Holm for stats.



ICESat rSCF at NSIDC

Several staff members of NSIDC are exploiting our rSCF (visualization/analysis software and subscriptions)

Subscriptions for Greenland, Antarctic, Colorado



Backup Slides







Staggered Release of Data Products – Now Complete• June 18 began ingesting and distributing L1A AMSR-E data.

• Sept. 2 began ingesting and distributing L2A AMSR-E into ECS. Also staging L2A on sidads (non-ECS server), rolling archive

• Reprocessed data from June 02-June 03 by Oct. 03, per NASDA

• March 1 we released to the public for the first time, the three L2B products and the six *daily* L3 products:AE_Ocean L2B Ocean Products AE_Land L2B Soil Moisture Products AE_Rain L2B Rainfall AE_DyOcn L3 Daily Ocean Grids AE_DySno L3 Daily Snow Water Equivalent EASE-Grid AE_Sl6 L3 Daily 6.25 km 89 GHz Tbs Polar Grids AE_Sl12 L3 Daily 12.5 km Tbs, sea ice concs, & snow depths over sea ice AE_Sl25 L3 Daily 25 km Tbs, sea ice concs & sea ice temps AE_Land3 L3 Soil Moisture Products

March 3, we released to the public the 5-day snow product:AE_5DSno AMSR-E/Aqua 5-Day L3 Global Snow Water Equivalent EASE-Grids

March 7, we released to the public the weekly ocean product:AE_WkOcn AMSR-E/Aqua Weekly L3 Global Ascending/Descending .25x.25 deg Ocean Grids

In April, we released 3 new (L3) data products (all 3 are monthly products):AE_Rain AMSR-E/Aqua Monthly L3 5x5 deg Rainfall Accumulations

• AE_MoOcn AMSR-E/Aqua Monthly L3 Global Ascending/Descending .25x.25 deg Ocean Grids AE_MoSno AMSR-E/Aqua Monthly L3 Global Snow Water Equivalent EASE-Grids



•NSIDC’s Ken Knowles developed AS2GT.•The AMSR-E Swath-to-Grid Toolkit (AS2GT) is a suite of software tools to subset and grid Levels 1B and 2A AMSR-E swath data. •AS2GT makes it possible to quickly and easily work with the AMSR-E data in ways that may not be available in the Level 3 gridded data sets. •This toolkit allows you to process data into custom grids with whatever temporal or spatial resolution you require. •AS2GT maintains the highest data quality for your application by giving you control over map projection, number of samples per day, input resolution and interpolation method.

Gridding options in AS2GT include:•Map projection •Resolution and grid dimensions•Resampling method•How to handle overlapping swaths•Subsetting by time or region

AS2GT: AMSR-E Swath-to-Grid Toolkit



AS2GT: AMSR-E Swath-to-Grid Toolkit



AMSR-E Level 2A Level 2 & 3

Science QA Algorithm Updates

Algorithm Updates

Internal

AMSR-E SIPS Remote Sensing Systems Santa Rosa,

California

AMSR-E SIPS Remote Sensing Systems

Santa Rosa, California

Users Users

NASDA/EOC Hatoyama

, Japan

NASDA/EOC Hatoyama, Japan

AMSR-E Level 1A

Physical Oceanography DAAC

NASA/Jet Propulsion Lab. Pasadena,

California

Physical Oceanography DAAC

NASA/Jet Propulsion Lab. Pasadena, California

AMSR-E SIPS Global Hydrology & Climate

Center NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville,

Alabama

AMSR-E SIPS Global Hydrology & Climate Center NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center

Huntsville, Alabama

AMSR-E Science Computing Facility Global Hydrology & Climate Center NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville,

Alabama

AMSR-E Science Computing Facility Global Hydrology & Climate Center NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center

Huntsville, Alabama

AMSR-E Level 1A

AMSR-E Product Delivery Record Server

ECS NSIDC DAAC

Boulder, Colorado

ECS NSIDC DAAC

Boulder, Colorado

PDR, Data, & metadata

DAP & metadata

PDRDs

PANs

AMSR-E SIPS & SCF

AMSR-E Science Team

AMSR-E Science Team

Non-ECS NSIDC

AMSR-E Level 1A

Level 2 & 3

EDOS

L0 AMSR-E Data

AMSR-E Data Flow Interfaces



AMSR-E Data Products

ShortName

DataLevel

Collection DescriptionDelivery

FrequencyData Volume

uncompressed

PM1GBAD1 Level-0 Ground-Based Attitude DeterminationData for EOS Aqua in 1 secondintervals

Every twohours

small


Every twohours

small


Every twohours

small

AE-PMSCI Level-0 AMSR-E Science and EngineeringData

Every twohours

1.3 GB/day

AMSR_L1A L1A ADEOS-II AMSR L1A RawObservation Counts

~28 half-orbits / day

1.2 GB/day

AMSREL1A L1A Aqua AMSR-E L1A Raw ObservationCounts

~28 half-orbits / day

1.2 GB/day



AMSR-E Data Products (cont.)ShortName

DataLevel



uncompressedAE_L2A Level-

2AAqua AMSR-E global swath BrightnessTemperatures are resampled at resolutions of 57km, 36 km, 21 km, 11 km, and 5.5 km.

~28 half-orbits/ day

2.489 GB/day

AE_Ocean Level-2B

Aqua AMSR-E global swath ocean wind speed at36 and 21 km res., water vapor over ocean at 21 kmres., cloud liquid water at 11 km res., and seasurface temperature at 57 and 36 km res. generatedusing the Wentz Algorithm and Level-2A product.

~28 half-orbits/day

277.1 MB/day

AE_Land Level-2B

Aqua AMSR-E swath surface soil moisture andinterpretive parameters including surface type,vegetation water content, surface temperature, andQC parameters are generated from Level-2AAMSR-E TBs spatially resampled to a nominal 25km equal area earth grid

~28 half-orbits/day

11.9 MB/day

AE_Rain Level-2B

Aqua AMSR-E global swath rain rate and rain typeproducts are generated using the Level-2A spatiallyresampled TBs as input. Over ocean the GoddardProfiling Algorithm produces rain rates and types;over land the Ferraro Algorithm is used.

~28 half-orbits/day

497.7 MB/day

AE_RnGd Level-3 Aqua AMSR-E global monthly global rainfallaccumulations are 5 x 5 degree grids generatedusing the Wilheit Algorithm and Level-2 rainproducts as input.

1 / month .005 MB/month

AE_DyOcn Level-3 Aqua AMSR-E global ocean Level-3 daily productsare .25 x .25 degree ascending and descending gridsgenerated using the six Level-2B ocean products asinput.

1 / day 14.5 MB/day



AMSR-E Data Products (cont.)Short Name

DataLevel



uncompressed

AE_WkOcn Level-3 Aqua AMSR-E global ocean Level-3weekly products are .25 x .25 degreeascending and descending grids generatedusing the six Level-2B ocean products asinput.

1 / week 12.4 MB/week

AE_MoOcn Level-3 Aqua AMSR-E global ocean Level-3monthly products are .25 x .25 degree gridsgenerated using the six Level-2B oceanproducts as input.

1 / month 12.4 MB/month

AE_DySno Level-3 Aqua AMSR-E Level-3 daily productcontains global snow water equivalentEASE grids. Snow depth EASE grids areincluded as research products.

1 / day 4.2 MB/day

AE_5DSno Level-3 Aqua AMSR-E Level-3 product contains5-day global snow water equivalent EASEgrids. Snow depth EASE grids areincluded as research products

1 / day 4.2 MB/ 5-day

AE_MoSno Level-3 Aqua AMSR-E Level-3 product containsmonthly global snow water equivalentEASE grids. Snow depth EASE girds areincluded as research products

1 / month 4.2 MB/ month

AE_WkOcn Level-3 Aqua AMSR-E global ocean Level-3weekly products are .25 x .25 degreeascending and descending grids generatedusing the six Level-2B ocean products asinput.

1 / week 12.4 MB/week



AMSR-E Data Products (cont.)

ShortName

DataLevel



uncompressedAE_SI6 Level-3 Aqua AMSR-E Level-3 products at 6.25 km

contain polar stereographic grids of 89.0 GHzbrightness temperatures . Grids are daily averages,daily ascending averages, and daily descendingaverages.

1 / day 46.3 MB/day

AE_SI12 Level-3 Aqua AMSR-E Level-3 products at 12.5 km arepolar stereographic grids of sea ice concentration,snow depth over ice, 18 - 89.0 GHz TBs. The seaice concentration and TBs are daily, daily asc, anddaily desc grids. The snow depth is a 5-day grid.

1 / day 64.6 MB/day

AE_SI25 Level-3 Aqua AMSR-E Level-3 products at 25 km containpolar stereographic grids of sea ice concentration,sea ice temperature, 6.925, 10.65, 18.7, 23.8, 36.5,and 89.0 GHz TBs. Grids are daily averages, dailyascending averages, and daily descendingaverages.

1 / day 22.4 MB/day

AE_Land3 Level-3 Global surface soil moisture with vegetation watercontent, surface temperature, and TB parametersare generated on a nominal 25-km equal area earthgrid by time-compositing the Level-2B parameters,separately for ascending and descending passes.

1 / day 58.3 MB/day



GLAS Data Products

ShortName Longname Received # of GranulesIngested

GLA01 L1A Global Altimetry Data X 206

GLA02 L1A Global Atmosphere Data X 26

GLA03 L1A Global Engineering Data X 22

GLA04 L1A Global Laser Pointing Data X 22

GLA05 L1B Global Waveform-based Range Corrections X 95

GLA06 L1B Global Elevation Data X 131

GLA07 L1B Global Backscatter Data X 6

GLA08 L2 Global PBL & Elevated Aerosol Layer Heights X 3

GLA09 L2 Global Cloud Heights for Multi-layer Clouds X 3

GLA10 L2 Global Aerosol Vertical Structure Data X 2

GLA11 L2 Global Thin Cloud/Aerosol Optical Depths Data X 2

GLA12 L2 Global Antarctic & Greenland Ice Sheet Alt. X 2

GLA13 L2 Sea Ice Altimetry Data X 2

GLA14 L2 Global Land Surface Altimetry Data X 2

GLA15 L2 Ocean Altimetry Data X 2

GLA16 L3 Elevation and Atmosphere HDF-EOS Data GLA16 is not fully developed



Status of AMSR-E and ICESat/GLAS at NSIDC Melinda Marquis NSIDC Product Team Lead, AMSR-E, AMSR-E Validation and GLAS June 3, 2004.

Documents

nsidc daacjune

amsre icesatglasamsre

amsre products

amsre validation

amsre current operationswere

days of data

status of amsr

preliminary ftp data