AMSR-E/Aqua Monthly L3 Global Ascending/Descending .25x.25 deg Ocean Grids

Data Contributors

WENTZ, FRANK J.
MEISSNER, THOMAS

Parameters

CLOUD LIQUID WATER/ICE
CLOUD PRECIPITABLE WATER
PRECIPITABLE WATER
SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE
SURFACE WINDS
WATER TEMPERATURE
WATER VAPOR

Instruments

AMSR-E : ADVANCED MICROWAVE SCANNING RADIOMETER-EOS

The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) instrument on the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) Aqua satellite provides global passive microwave measurements of terrestrial, oceanic, and atmospheric variables for the investigation of water and energy cycles. Measurements of ocean variables improve our understanding of a wide variety of hydrological and radiative processes, including air-sea and air-ice interactions.

The Level-2B ocean swath product (AE_Ocean) contains Sea Surface Temperature (SST) at 56 km and 38 km resolution, near-surface wind speed at 38 km and 21 km resolution, columnar water vapor at 21 km resolution, columnar cloud liquid water at 12 km resolution, and quality flags. All variables were measured over oceans and are generated from the Wentz algorithm.

The Level-3 daily product (AE_DyOcn), weekly product (AE_WkOcn), and monthly product (AE_MoOcn) include SST, near-surface wind speed, columnar water vapor, and columnar cloud liquid water over oceans in a 0.25 degree by 0.25 degree grid, generated from AE_Ocean. Data are stored in Hierarchical Data Format - Earth Observing System (HDF-EOS) format, and are available from 19 June 2002 to the present via FTP, CD-ROM, DVD, or DLT.

Data Citation

The following examples show how to cite the use of these data sets in a publication. List the principal investigators, year of data set release, data set title and version number, dates of the data you used (for example, March to June 2004), publisher: NSIDC, and digital media.

Wentz, Frank, and Thomas Meissner. 2004, updated daily. AMSR-E/Aqua Monthly L3 Global Ascending/Descending .25x.25 deg Ocean Grids V002, [list the dates of the data used]. Boulder, Colorado USA: National Snow and Ice Data Center. Digital media.