ALBERT

Description: The Earth is a dynamic system-it has a fluid, mobile atmosphere and oceans, a continually changing distribution of ice, snow, and groundwater, a fluid core undergoing hydromagnetic motion, a mantle undergoing both thermal convection and rebound from glacial loading of the last ice age, and mobile tectonic plates.

Description: Aquarius is a combined passive/active L-band microwave instrument that is being developed to map the salinity field at the surface of the ocean from space. The data will support studies of the coupling between ocean circulation, global water cycle, and climate. Aquarius is part of the Aquarius/SAC-D mission, which is a partnership between the U.S. (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and Argentina (CONAE). The primary science objective of this mission is to monitor the seasonal and interannual variation of the large-scale features of the surface salinity field in the open ocean with a spatial resolution of 150 km and a retrieval accuracy of 0.2 psu globally on a monthly basis.

Description: Aquarius is a combination radiometer and scatterometer (radar) operating at L-band (1.413 GHz for the radiometer and 1.26 GHz for the scatterometer). The primary instrument for measuring salinity is the radiometer. The scatterometer will provide a correction for surface roughness (waves) which is one of the largest potential sources of error in the retrieval. Unique features of the sensor are the large reflector (2.5 meter offset fed reflector with three feeds), polarimetric operation, and the tight thermal control. The three feeds produce three beams arranged to image in pushbroom fashion looking to the side of the orbit away from the sun to avoid sunglint. Polarimetric operation is included to assist in correcting for Faraday rotation which can be important at L-band. The tight thermal control is necessary to meet stability requirements (less than 0.12K drift over 7 days) which have been imposed to assist in meeting the science requirements for the retrieval of surface salinity (0.2 psu). The sensor will be in a sun-synchronous orbit at about 650 km with equatorial crossings of 6ad6pm (ascending at 6 pm). The objective is to monitor the seasonal and interannual variation of the large scale features of the surface salinity field in the open ocean. To accomplish this, the measurement goals are a spatial resolution of 100 km and retrieval accuracy of 0.2 psu globally on a monthly basis. Aquarius is being developed by NASA and is a partnership between JPL and the Goddard Space Flight Center. The SAC-D mission is being developed by CONAE and will include the spacecraft and several additional instruments, including visible and infrared cameras and a microwave radiometer to monitor rain and wind velocity over the oceans, and sea ice.

Description: Aquarius is a microwave remote sensing system designed to obtain global maps of the surface salinity field of the oceans from space. It will be flown on the Aquarius/SAC-D mission, a partnership between the USA (NASA) and Argentina (CONAE) with launch scheduled for late in 2008. The objective of Aquarius is to monitor the seasonal and interannual variation of the large scale features of the surface salinity field in the open ocean. This will provide data to address scientific questions associated with ocean circulation and its impact on climate. For example, salinity is needed to understand the large scale thermohaline circulation, driven by buoyancy, which moves large masses of water and heat around the globe. Of the two variables that determine buoyancy (salinity and temperature), temperature is already being monitored. Salinity is the missing variable needed to understand this circulation. Salinity also has an important role in energy exchange between the ocean and atmosphere, for example in the development of fresh water lenses (buoyant water that forms stable layers and insulates water below from the atmosphere) which alter the air-sea coupling. Aquarius is a combination radiometer and scatterometer (radar) operating at L-band (1.413 GHz for the radiometer and 1.26 GHz for the scatterometer). The primary instrument,for measuring salinity is the radiometer which is able to detect salinity because of the modulation salinity produces on the thermal emission from sea water. This change is detectable at the long wavelength end of the microwave spectrum. The scatterometer will provide a correction for surface roughness (waves) which is one of the greatest unknowns in the retrieval. The sensor will be in a sun-synchronous orbit at about 650 km with equatorial crossings of 6am/6pm. The antenna for these two instruments is a 3 meter offset fed reflector with three feeds arranged in pushbroom fashion looking away from the sun toward the shadow side of the orbit to minimize sunglint. The mission goal is to produce maps of the salinity field globally once each month with an accuracy of 0.2 psu and a spatial resolution of 100 km. This will be adequate to address l&ge scale features of the salinity field of the open ocean. The temporal resolution is sufficient to address seasonal changes and a three year mission is planned to-collect sufficient data to look for interannual variation. Aquarius is being developed by NASA as part of the Earth System Science Pathfinder (ESSP) program. The SAC-D mission is being developed by CONAE and will include the space craft and several additional instruments, including visible and infrared cameras and a microwave radiometer to monitor rain and wind velocity over the oceans, and sea ice.

Description: Aquarius is an L-band instrument designed to map the surface salinity field of the global oceans. It consists of three L-band (1.41 GHz) radiometers and an L-band (1.26 GHz) scatterometer. The radiometers are the primary instruments for measuring salinity and the scatterometer provides a correction for surface roughness. Aquarius was launched in June 2011 and has been mapping the surface salinity field since it was turned on in August. In addition, Aquarius is now producing maps of radio frequency interference (RFI), Faraday rotation and soil moisture.

Description: Aquarius is a combination L-band radiometer and scatterometer designed to map the salinity field at the ocean surface from space. It will be flown on the Aquarius/SAC-D mission, a partnership between the USA space agency (NASA) and Argentine space agency (CONAE). The mission is composed of two parts: (a) The Aquarius instrument being developed as part of NASA.s Earth System Science Pathfinder (ESSP) program; and (b) SAC-D the fourth spacecraft service platform in the CONAE Satellite de Aplicaciones Cientificas (SAC) program. The primary focus of the mission is to monitor the seasonal and interannual variations of the salinity field in the open ocean. The mission also meets the needs of the Argentine space program for monitoring the environment and for hazard detection and includes several instruments related to these goals.

Description: Aquarius is an L-band radiometer and scatterometer instrument combination designed to map the salinity field at the surface of the ocean from space. The instrument is designed to provide global salinity maps on a monthly basis with a spatial resolution of 150 km and an accuracy of 0.2 psu. The science objective is to monitor the seasonal and interannual variation of the large scale features of the surface salinity field in the open ocean. This data will promote understanding of ocean circulation and its role in the global water cycle and climate.