EOS PM-1 Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) Science Team Meeting

--E. Lobl (elena.lobl@msfc.nasa.gov), Team Coordinator, Earth System Science Laboratory, University of Alabama in Huntsville

The US EOS PM-1 AMSR-E Science Team had a meeting on March 11, 1997 at Goddard Space Flight Center. This half-day meeting featured discussions of various topics: integrated team algorithm, two deliverables, ADEOS II AMSR data transfer, validation campaigns, and the ER-2 flight plans. (The PM-1 AMSR was named "AMSR-E" by the Ministry of Finance of Japan.)

This was an unusually short meeting because the ATBD Peer Reviews were taking place the following day. Roy Spencer, Team Leader, opened the meeting by going over the agenda. The meeting started with a PM Project Office report. Bernie Graf, PM Project AMSR-E Instrument Manager, reported on the EOS PM-1 AMSR hardware status. The interface hardware issues are all resolved and documentation is being completed. Paul Hwang, PM Project Office, updated the team on the NASDA-NASA Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

D. Conway, AMSR-E Software Integrator, discussed the team integrated software driver, plans for development, and issues connected with this development. The simple flow diagram for this driver initiated discussions with all team members on what order the different algorithms should be called into execution, which algorithms need inputs from others, and who will write out the final products. The team decided that, for AMSR-E, a granule will consist of data in one full orbit starting and ending at the South Pole.

The team discussed several other miscellaneous topics:

• Software Management Plan and Science Data Validation Plan outlines;

• Metadata updates;

• ER-2 flight plans for different field experiments and the specific rainfall over the ocean field experiment idea (in collaboration with G. Petty, Purdue University); and

• ADEOS II AMSR data transfer from Japan, in collaboration with the JPL SeaWinds team.

The Team was updated on the communications with S. Gunter (SeaWinds Project, Ground Data Systems) and the agreed-upon proposed data transfer format and flow. S. Sobue (NASDA Earth Observation Information System Associate Senior Engineer, representative to ESDIS project) brought up several issues in connection with this data transfer: the sensor provider has the responsibility for Level 1 processing and there is no Level 1c requirement for ADEOS II (the AMSR-E Science Team will process the remapped Level 1b data and call it a Level 2 product ); metadata format compatibility and toolkit use; and two modes of ADEOS II data flow operation: mode 1 - through a data relay satellite (90% of the time), and mode 2 directly to an X-band ground station (the remaining 10%).

The next AMSR meeting will take place at the Hydrology and Climate Center, Huntsville, AL, June 10-11, 1997.