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2012 International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium

July 22-27, 2012
Munich, Germany

Eleven papers related to Aquarius were presented at the 2012 Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS) whose theme was "Remote Sensing for a Dynamic Earth". These papers covered applications such as radio frequency interference, soil moisture, topographic signatures, sea surface salinity and retrieval algorithms, experimental T-S diagram development, correlations with SMOS, and instrument calibration. IGARSS is sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

Program Guide
Documents (11)
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An Observing System Simulation Experiment (OSSE) for the Aquarius/SAC-D Soil Moisture Product: An Investigation of Forward/Retrieval Model Asymmetries
Perna, P., Bruscantini, C., Ferrazzoli, P., Grings, F., Karszenbaum, H., and Crow, W. (28-Sep-15). An Observing System Simulation Experiment (OSSE) for the Aquarius/SAC-D mission has been developed for assessing the accuracy of soil moisture retrieval. In this paper, OSSE attempts to capture the influence of this effect over estimated soil moisture.

Aquarius Engineering Phase On-Orbit TA Calibration
Mims, A. and Ruf, C. (28-Sep-15). This study addresses Aquarius' external calibration methods, using observed antenna temperatures to characterize instrument behavior by computing the oceanic global average and vicarious cold statistics.

Aquarius Radiometer RFI Detection Mitigation and Impact Assessment
Ruf, C., Chen, D., Le Vine, D., de Matthaeis, P., and Piepmeier, J. (28-Sep-15). Performance of the Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) detection and mitigation algorithms used by the Aquarius microwave radiometer is demonstrated on orbit. The detection algorithm makes use of the radiometer's high over-sampling rate to identify short, pulsed increases in power that are characteristic of radar operating nearby in the microwave spectrum. The mitigation algorithm is shown to remove nearly all detected RFI.

Aquarius/SAC-D Microwave Radiometer (MWR): Instrument Description & Brightness Temperature Calibration
Biswas, S.K., Jones, L., Rocca, D., and Gallio, J.-C. (28-Sep-15). The K/Ka-Band Microwave Radiometer (MWR) on-board Aquarius/SAC-D mission is described here with details on its radiometric calibration. The calibration is separated in two major instrument parts viz. receiver and antenna switch-matrix. An on-orbit calibration using Naval Research Laboratory's WindSat radiometer is used to determine antenna pattern correction coefficients and residual biases.

Assessment of the Impacts of Radio Frequency Interference on SMAP Radar and Radiometer Measurements
Chen, C.W., Piepmeier, J.R., Johnson, J.T., and Ghaemi, H. (28-Sep-15). This paper discusses the impacts of radio frequency interference on the NASA Soil Moisture Active and Passive mission's radar and radiometer.

Comparison of Aquarius Measurements Over Oceans With Radiative Transfer Models at L-band
Dinnat, E.P., Abraham, S., Le Vine, D.M., de Matthaeis, P., and Utku, C. (28-Sep-15). It is shown how the Aquarius spaceborne radiometric instrument is calibrated for different atmospheric conditions like temperature and wind speed.

Derivation of an Experimental Satellite-Based T-S Diagram
Sabia, R., Ballabrera, J., Lagerloef, G., Bayler, E., Talone, M., Chao, Y., Donlon, C., Fernandez-Prieto, D., and Font, J. (28-Sep-15). A preliminary attempt of deriving a purely satellite-based Temperature-Salinity (T-S) diagram is presented, with the overall aim of assessing to what extent is possible, and in which geographical areas, to identify and trace water masses by satellite.

Evaluation of Sea Surface Salinity Observed by Aquarius
Ebuchi, N. and Abe, H. (28-Sep-15). Sea surface salinity data derived from Aquarius on the SAC-D satellite were compared with observations by Argo floats in the global oceans to evaluate the quality of the Aquarius salinity measurement and assess the error structure in the data.

Synthesizing SMOS Zero-Baselines with Aquarius Brightness Temperature Simulator
Colliander, A., Dinnat, E., Le Vine, D., and Kainulainen, J. (28-Sep-15). The antenna pattern and observation geometry of the SMOS zero-baseline radiometer, which is used as a reference for the SMOS brightness temperature calibration, was applied to Aquarius simulator, which is used as a reference for the Aquarius brightness temperature calibration. In the preliminary analysis, simulations carried out over a three month period show remarkable agreement between the measurements and simulations.

The Aquarius Salinity Retrieval Algorithm
Meissner, T., Wentz, F., Hilburn, K., Lagerloef, G., and Le Vine, D. (28-Sep-15). This paper gives an overview of the algorithm for retrieving sea surface salinity from the AQUARIUS L-band radiometer and its physical background.

Topographic Signatures in Aquarius Radiometer/Scatterometer Response: Initial Results
Utku, C. and Le Vine, D.M. (28-Sep-15). The effect of topography on remote sensing at L-band is examined using the co-located Aquarius radiometer and scatterometer observations over land. A correlation with slope standard deviation is demonstrated for both the radiometer and scatterometer at topographic scales.