Aquarius: The instrument and initial results

Author

Le Vine, D.M. ; Lagerloef, G.S.E. ; Ruf, C. ; Wentz, F. ; Yueh, S. ; Piepmeier, J. ; Lindstrom, E. ; Dinnat, E.

Author_Institution

Marshall Space Flight Center, NASA, Greenbelt, MD, USA

fYear

2012

fDate

5-9 March 2012

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

3

Abstract

Aquarius was launched on June 10, 2011 aboard the Aquarius/SAC-D observatory and the instrument has been operating continuously since the initial turned-on was completed on August 25. The initial observed antenna temperatures were close to predicted and the first salinity map was released in September. In order to map the ocean salinity field, Aquarius includes several special features such as the inclusion of a scatterometer to provide a roughness correction, measurement of the third Stokes parameter to correct for Faraday rotation, and fast sampling to mitigate the effects of RFI. This paper provides an overview of the instrument and an example of initial results. Details are covered in subsequent papers in the session on Aquarius.

Keywords

Faraday effect; ocean chemistry; oceanographic equipment; oceanographic techniques; radiometry; remote sensing; seawater; underwater optics; Aquarius/SAC-D observatory; Faraday rotation; antenna temperature; ocean salinity; roughness correction; salinity map; scatterometer; third Stokes parameter; Electromagnetic interference; NASA; Radiometry; Microwave Remote Sensing; Microwave radiometiy; ocean salinity;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Radiometry and Remote Sensing of the Environment (MicroRad), 2012 12th Specialist Meeting on

Conference_Location

Rome

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-1468-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MicroRad.2012.6185226

Filename

6185226