GCOM-W/AMSR2 L2 Sea Ice Concentration

GCOM-W/AMSR2 L2 Sea Ice Concentration dataset is obtained from the AMSR2 sensor onboard GCOM-W and produced by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). GCOM-W was launched by the H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 21 (H-IIA F21) at 1:39 a.m. on May 18th, 2012 (Japan Standard Time, JST) and inserted into a planned position on the "A-Train" orbit. GCOM-W equipped with AMSR2 takes measurements at multiple microwave frequencies and multiple polarizations of weak electromagnetic waves in the microwave band radiated from the Earth’s surface and the atmosphere. AMSR2 has swath of 1450 km and 7 microwave bands. The observation data will enable the creation of long-term trustworthy data sets of global physical amount. Level 2 products calculates various geophysical parameters related to water using the Level 1B or 1R products as inputs. This dataset includes Sea Ice Concentration (SIC), percentage of sea ice coverage within target ocean area. Coverage of the product is over the ocean around Arctic and Antarctic Sea, and unit is [%]. There is no sea ice within pixel area when sea ice concentration is 0%, and all pixel area is covered by sea ice when it shows 100%. We can learn distribution of sea ice immediately using this product, and it will become more and more important because of recent decrease of Arctic sea ice cover. The Pixel_Data_Quality is quality flag stored for each observation point. The provided format is HDF5. The Sampling resolution is 15 km. The current version of the product is Version 3. The Version 2 is also available. The generation unit is scene (defined as a half orbit).