GCOM-W/AMSR2 L2 Soil Moisture Content

GCOM-W/AMSR2 L2 Soil Moisture Content 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 Soil Moisture Content (SMC), amount of soil wetness near the ground surface as volume water content. Coverage of the product is over land only, and unit is [%]. Soil moisture cannot be estimated near the coast, around big lakes and marshes, or areas with wide spread dense forests. Since microwave radiometer can get data constantly and frequently, this product is used in monitoring of large-scale cultivation areas in the continents. The Pixel_Data_Quality is quality flag stored for each observation point. The provided format is HDF5. The Sampling resolution is 50 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).