ADEOS-II AMSR homepage: se.eorc.nasda.go.jp/eorc/AMSR/amsr
EOS PM-1 AMSR-E homepage: wwwghcc.msfc.nasa.gov/AMSR
The second Joint AMSR Science Team met on October 28, 1997 at the Earth Observation Research Center (EORC), in Tokyo, Japan. This meeting preceded the ADEOS-II AMSR Workshop. Discussion revolved around the standard data products that Japan and the U.S. will produce from AMSR data.
Paul Hwang (EOS PM Project Office) gave the status of the project, including the status of the instruments that will fly on the PM-1 spacecraft. All instruments are on schedule for delivery to TRW, the spacecraft contractor. He also presented the three action items that were assigned to the Joint AMSR Science Team by the AMSR-E/PM-1/ Ground System Interface meeting, October 13-14 , 1997, held at JPL. The responses to these action items are due January, 1998.
N. Nakagawa (ADEOS-II Program Coordinator) presented the ADEOS-II project status and a short review of the algorithm development schedule and selection process. He also commented on NASDA's 2nd Research Announcement (RA), which has as its objectives: post-launch cal/val activities and the development of research algorithms and their scientific application. This RA will be released at the beginning of 1998.
The AMSR Science Data Validation Plan was discussed briefly. The Japanese scientists agreed to become active participants in the validation process and to assist in the completion of the plan. E. Lobl (AMSR-E Science Team Coordinator) will ensure that this cooperation between the U.S. and Japanese scientists occurs
The main discussion topic was a comparison between the U.S. and Japanese standard products. The U.S. standard products were illustrated with a diagram showing the AMSR-E standard product generation flow. All U.S. products on this diagram, except Level 1, will be generated in the U.S.
Dr. A. Shibata (ADEOS-II AMSR Chief Scientist) presented the Japanese concept for algorithm development and then showed a list of the Japanese standard products. The main requirements for a standard product algorithm selection are: a) a high score on intercomparison; b) level of support to the EORC (in testing the algorithm) and the Earth Observation Center (EOC) in installing it before launch; c) support post-launch calibration; and d) to be simple, if possible. Other important considerations include utilization of AMSR's new frequencies, a reasonable method of correcting bias, and the retrieval algorithms for each parameter to be as independent as possible. Dr. Shibata also presented a tentative schedule for the final algorithm selection.
The list of the Japanese standard products follows:
Water vapor 2 byte + quality flag (1 byte) Cloud liquid water 2 byte + quality flag (1 byte) Precipitation 2 byte + quality flag (1 byte) Sea surface wind speed 2 byte + quality flag (1 byte) Sea surface temperature 2 byte + quality flag (1 byte) Sea ice concentration 4 byte + quality flag (1 byte) Snow water equivalent 4 byte + quality flag (1 byte) Soil moisture 4 byte + quality flag (1 byte)
Note: length of byte not yet determined
More specific information on the contents of the Japanese standard products will be forthcoming after the selection of the retrieval algorithms.
The meeting was adjourned with no further discussions. The next Joint AMSR Science team meeting is tentatively planned for the end of June 1998.
