AMSR-E/Aqua Monthly Global Microwave Land Surface Emissivity, Version 1
Data set id:
NSIDC-0543
DOI: 10.5067/SFBY6Q6JYS3L
This is the most recent version of these data.

Overview

This data set is a global land emissivity product using passive microwave observations from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - Earth Observing System (AMSR-E). The data set complements existing land emissivity products from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) and Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU) by adding land emissivity estimates at two lower frequencies, 6.9 and 10.65 GHz (C- and X-band, respectively). Observations at these low frequencies penetrate deeper into the soil layer. Land surface emissivity estimates for this data set were collected at the following vertically and horizontally polarized (V-pol and H-pol) frequencies: 6.9, 10.65, 18.7, 23.8, 36.5, and 89.0 GHz. Ancillary data used in the analysis, such as surface skin temperature and cloud mask, were obtained from International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP). Atmospheric properties were obtained from TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder (TOVS) observations to determine the small upwelling and downwelling atmospheric emissions as well as the atmospheric transmission. The data set is in monthly format that is extracted from instantaneous emissivity estimates. Data are stored in HDF4 files and are available via FTP.
Parameter(s):
EMISSIVITY
Platform(s):
AQUA
Sensor(s):
AMSR-E
Data Format(s):
HDF
Temporal Coverage:
1 July 2002 to 30 June 2008
Temporal Resolution:
  • 1 month
Spatial Resolution:
  • 0.25 deg
  • 0.25 deg
Spatial Coverage:
N:
90
S:
-90
E:
180
W:
-180
Blue outlined yellow areas on the map below indicate the spatial coverage for this data set.

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Help Articles

How to Articles

To convert HDF5 files into binary format you will need to use the h5dump utility, which is part of the HDF5 distribution available from the HDF Group. How you install HDF5 depends on your operating system.
Data from the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC) can be accessed directly from our HTTPS file system. We provide basic command line Wget and curl instructions for HTTPS file system downloads below.