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 DAACJune 3, 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.

Polar DAAC Advisory Group Melinda Marquis, NSIDC DAACJune 3, 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.

Polar DAAC Advisory Group Melinda Marquis, NSIDC DAACJune 3, 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.

Polar DAAC Advisory Group Melinda Marquis, NSIDC DAACJune 3, 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. 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.

Polar DAAC Advisory Group Melinda Marquis, NSIDC DAACJune 3, 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

Polar DAAC Advisory Group Melinda Marquis, NSIDC DAACJune 3, Tools for AMSR-E Data AMSR-E Tools Page at AMSR-E Swath to Grid Toolkit (AS2GT):AMSR-E Swath to Grid Toolkit (AS2GT) 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.Land masks 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.Hierarchical Data Format - Earth Observing System (HDF- EOS) 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.

Polar DAAC Advisory Group Melinda Marquis, NSIDC DAACJune 3, 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 EDG Data Type # Users #Grans AMSREL1A AE_L2A 72 65,132 AE_Ocean 2 2,415 AE_Rain 3 2,342 AE_Land 7 2,968 AE_SI AE_SI AE_SI AE_DySNO AE_5DSNO 8 34 AE_MoSNO 2 4 AE_DyOcn 112 AE_WkOcn 16 AE_MoOcn 1 4 AE_Land AE_RnGd 1 5 Prelim 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

Polar DAAC Advisory Group Melinda Marquis, NSIDC DAACJune 3, 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.

Polar DAAC Advisory Group Melinda Marquis, NSIDC DAACJune 3, 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. Nunavut Gulf of Boothia Somerset Is Cornwallis Is.

Polar DAAC Advisory Group Melinda Marquis, NSIDC DAACJune 3, 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 (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.

Polar DAAC Advisory Group Melinda Marquis, NSIDC DAACJune 3, 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.

Polar DAAC Advisory Group Melinda Marquis, NSIDC DAACJune 3, ICESat/GLAS Tools GLAS Tools Page at IDL visualizer 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.quick-start tutorial NSIDC GLAS Altimetry elevation extractor Tool (NGAT)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.Research Systems Inc. IDL readerIDL reader: Read data from an ICESat/GLAS file and print all the variables in ASCII format. Fortran 90 readerFortran 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 conversionIDL ellipsoid conversion: Convert between GLAS and WGS-84 ellipsoids.

Polar DAAC Advisory Group Melinda Marquis, NSIDC DAACJune 3, L1B Calibrated attenuated backscatter data, GLA07 This 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 San Joaquin 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.

Polar DAAC Advisory Group Melinda Marquis, NSIDC DAACJune 3, GLAS Distribution Statistics (cont) FOREIGN COMMERCIAL 3 FOREIGN GOVERNMENT 7 FOREIGN OTHER 12 FOREIGN UNIVERSITY 23 NASA 8 OTHER 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.

Polar DAAC Advisory Group Melinda Marquis, NSIDC DAACJune 3, ICESat rSCF at NSIDC Several staff members of NSIDC are exploiting our rSCF (visualization/analysis software and subscriptions) Subscriptions for Greenland, Antarctic, Colorado

Polar DAAC Advisory Group Melinda Marquis, NSIDC DAACJune 3, Backup Slides

Polar DAAC Advisory Group Melinda Marquis, NSIDC DAACJune 3,

Polar DAAC Advisory Group Melinda Marquis, NSIDC DAACJune 3,

Polar DAAC Advisory Group Melinda Marquis, NSIDC DAACJune 3, 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

Polar DAAC Advisory Group Melinda Marquis, NSIDC DAACJune 3, 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.AMSR-E 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

Polar DAAC Advisory Group Melinda Marquis, NSIDC DAACJune 3, AS2GT: AMSR-E Swath-to-Grid Toolkit

Polar DAAC Advisory Group Melinda Marquis, NSIDC DAACJune 3, EDOS L0 AMSR-E Data AMSR-E Data Flow Interfaces

Polar DAAC Advisory Group Melinda Marquis, NSIDC DAACJune 3, AMSR-E Data Products

Polar DAAC Advisory Group Melinda Marquis, NSIDC DAACJune 3, AMSR-E Data Products (cont.)

Polar DAAC Advisory Group Melinda Marquis, NSIDC DAACJune 3, AMSR-E Data Products (cont.)

Polar DAAC Advisory Group Melinda Marquis, NSIDC DAACJune 3, AMSR-E Data Products (cont.)

Polar DAAC Advisory Group Melinda Marquis, NSIDC DAACJune 3, GLAS Data Products ShortName Longname Received # of Granules Ingested GLA01L1A Global Altimetry Data X 206 GLA02L1A Global Atmosphere Data X 26 GLA03L1A Global Engineering Data X 22 GLA04L1A Global Laser Pointing Data X 22 GLA05L1B Global Waveform-based Range Corrections X 95 GLA06L1B Global Elevation Data X131 GLA07L1B Global Backscatter Data X 6 GLA08L2 Global PBL & Elevated Aerosol Layer Heights X 3 GLA09 L2 Global Cloud Heights for Multi-layer Clouds X 3 GLA10L2 Global Aerosol Vertical Structure Data X 2 GLA11L2 Global Thin Cloud/Aerosol Optical Depths Data X 2 GLA12L2 Global Antarctic & Greenland Ice Sheet Alt. X 2 GLA13L2 Sea Ice Altimetry Data X 2 GLA14L2 Global Land Surface Altimetry Data X 2 GLA15L2 Ocean Altimetry Data X 2 GLA16L3 Elevation and Atmosphere HDF-EOS Data GLA16 is not fully developed

Polar DAAC Advisory Group Melinda Marquis, NSIDC DAACJune 3,