-- E. Lobl (elena.lobl@msfc.nasa.gov), AMSR-E Science Team Coordinator, Earth System Science Labortory, University of Alabama in Huntsville, http://wwwghcc.msfc.nasa.gov/AMSR
An AMSR-E Science Team Meeting was held on March 31, 1998, at the Goddard Space Flight Center. This meeting preceded the PM-1 Validation Workshop held at the Maryland Conference Center, in College Park, MD. The topics discussed were: software beta delivery, Equal Area Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) Earth (EASE) grid, and lessons learned from TRMM. Most of the day was then used to prepare for the Validation Workshop by going over the Science Data Validation Plan and summarizing it. A presentation was also made for an airborne instrument that has all the AMSR-E channels: Helsinki University of Technology RADiometer (HUTRAD).
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. B. Graf (AMSR-E Instrument manager) summarized the Interface Review meeting that took place in Tokyo, September 5, 1997--all hardware issues have been resolved and the instrument development is on schedule.
Dawn Conway (AMSR-E Software Integrator) showed a new data products diagram (Figure above), and discussed the estimated data volumes for all AMSR-E products and three different configurations for Level-2 processing. The baseline is having the main routine read the entire data file and then call all the science subroutines in series. The two alternates were presented: (1) a scan-by-scan processing (reduced memory requirements, allowing for processing in parallel), and (2) a three-separate-subprocesses configuration: a. ocean products to include the sea ice and the ocean suite products; b. land products--land and snow; and c. precipitation).
Eni Njoku (AMSR-E Science team member--Land Products) presented his proposal for regridding the data using the EASE grid (an equal area grid). This regridding would be done before data are ingested in the retrieval algorithm. The usefulness of this scheme was questioned at high latitudes, where data would be oversampled manyfold.
Martti Hallikainen (Helsinki University of Technology, Laboratory of Space Technology) presented a summary of the research areas his laboratory is involved with and the many airborne instruments they have developed. He described in detail HUTRAD, the airborne microwave radiometer system with radiometers that have center frequencies similar to AMSR-E, and showed some preliminary data. The HUTRAD discussion was followed by the presentation of a radiometer system being developed at Goddard: Airborne C-Band Microwave Radiometer (ACMR). This radiometer will have only one frequency (6.925 GHz) and one polarization with future plans to develop it into a two polarization, scanning system.
Chris Kummerow (AMSR-E Science Team member concerning rainfall products and TRMM Project Scientist) relayed the lessons learned from TRMM and made suggestions for planning public outreach for the AMSR-E program.
For the rest of the meeting, the Science Data Validation Plan summary was discussed and revised. Our team members decided that the suggested outline for the plan does not work well in the case of AMSR-E, and thus we will reorganize it before the peer review is held next year.
The next team meeting will take place in Seattle, WA., July 7, 1998.