NOAA GCOM-W1/AMSR2 Product Processing and Validation System (Invited)

The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Global Change Observation Mission (GCOM) consists of two satellite series, Water (GCOM-W) and Climate (GCOM-C). The first satellite of the GCOM program, GCOM-W1, was launched on May 18, 2012 carrying the follow-on to the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - Earth Observing System (AMSR-E), AMSR-2. NOAA's GCOM-W1 product development and validation project will provide NOAA's users access to critical geophysical products derived from AMSR-2. These products, which are detailed in NOAA's Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) Level 1 Requirements Document Supplement, include: NOAA AMSR-2 Product Requirements: Day 1 Product Capability Microwave Brightness Temperature (MBT) Total Precipitable Water (TPW) Cloud Liquid Water (CLW) Precipitation Type/Rate (PT/R) Sea Surface Temperature (SST) Sea Surface Wind Speed (SSW) Day 2 Product Capability Soil Moisture (SM) Sea Ice Characterization (SIC) Snow Cover/Depth (SC/D) Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) GCOM-W1 data will be captured at the KSAT Svalbard Ground Station and assembled into APID packets. Using the JPSS (NPP) infrastructure, the GCOM raw data (APID packets) are routed to the NOAA Interface Data Processing System (IDPS), in near-real time. Once received at the IDPS, the APID packets will be reformatted into Raw Data Records (RDRs) and sent to the NPP Data Exploitation (NDE) system for distribution to the Environmental Satellite Data Processing System where further processing to brightness temperatures (Level 1, sensor data records (SDRs)) and geophysical products (Level 2, Environmental Data Records (EDRs)) will be performed. The RDRs are processed to SDRs utilizing software provided by JAXA. The EDRs are generated utilizing NOAA's AMSR-2 product processing system. The goal of the product processing system is to provide validated operational Level 2 products from the AMSR-2 instrument that address the GCOM-W1 requirements in the JPSS L1RD Supplemental for distribution to operational users. Additionally, the Level 2 processing system must be easily maintainable over the life of the mission and be adaptable to handle any required modifications due to potential AMSR-2 channel degradation and anomalies. The NOAA AMSR-2 product processing system consists of the following main entities: Ancillary Data (ingest any required ancillary data required for subsequent processing) SDR Postprocessor (address any residual calibration issues) EDR Preprocessor (any necessary reformatting and resampling) Notionally 3 EDR modules Ocean Scene EDRs Global Rain Rate Module (Ocean, Land and Coastal Region) Snow and Sea Ice Soil Moisture EDR Postprocessor (reformatting) An overview and preliminary results of the NOAA AMSR-2 product development and calibration/validation will be presented.