The Scatterometer Climate Record Pathfinder Project
This page provides a short description of the goals of
the Scatterometer Climate Record
Pathfinder.
The NASA Scatterometer Climate Record Pathfinder (SCP) is a
NASA-sponsored collaborative project between investigators at Brigham
Young University (BYU), the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the
European Space Agency (ESA), and the National Ice Center (NIC) to
develop accurately calibrated scatterometer-based data time series in
support of climate-related studies of the Earth's cryosphere and
biosphere. Originally developed to measure winds over the ocean from
space, microwave radar scatterometers have proven to be applicable
over a wide range of vegetation zones and moisture conditions
including wet, dry and frozen. Because the scatterometer radar signal
can penetrate the surface, a scatterometer can observe variability in
subsurface/subcanopy climate-related features which are driven by
diurnal, seasonal, and interannual forcing.
The launch of Seasat, carrying a Ku-band scatterometer (SASS), in
1978 provided a baseline against which studies of global change can
be measured. Other missions have followed SASS, including the C-band
European Space Agency (ESA) Earth Remote Sensing (ERS) -1 and -2
missions (1992+), the NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) mission aboard the
Japanese ADEOS satellite in 1996-97, SeaWinds on QuikSCAT (1999+),
and SeaWinds on ADEOS-II (2003). With their
rapid global coverage, day or night and all-weather operation,
scatterometers offer a unique tool for long-term climate studies. The
goal of the SCP is to provide scatterometer-based datasets to
researchers involved in climate studies.
The SCP datasets are based primarily on a time series of enhanced
resolution images made from the scatterometer backscatter (sigma0)
measurements using the Scatterometer Image Reconstruction (SIR) and
SIR w/filtering (SIRF) algorithms. For the highest possible spatial
resolution (as well as to ensure full coverage over the images)
multiple orbit passes are combined. There is thus a tradeoff between
temporal and spatial resolution. For SASS, NSCAT, and ERS, images of
sigma0 at 40 deg incidence angle (A) in dB and the slope of sigma0
versus incidence angle (B) in dB/deg are made. For QuikSCAT and
SeaWinds sigma0
images at the observation incidence angles are made. In addition to
these images, a number of ancillary images and derived products are
generated including sea ice extent maps and sea ice motion data sets.
From the time series of radar backscatter images and derived
products, key climate-related parameters can be extracted for use in
global climate change studies.
The principal repository for these datasets is the SCP URL https://www.scp.byu.edu/ where
files are publicly available using a browser or ftp. The Physical Oceanography Distributed
Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) will mirror, archive, and also
distribute the data via select media. Currently, CDs of
the QuikSCAT Sigma-0 Browse Product can be ordered from the PO.DAAC
at URL
https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/quikscat/qscat_data.html
Other SCP datasets will also be available from the PO.DAAC at URL https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/.
Selected ice products are archived at, and available from, the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)
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