Day 4 (December 9, 1999)


Session: AMSR Sensor Team Workshop
Room: 104
Agenda:
  1. Launch Date of ADEOS-II (Mr. Ito)
  2. New PI (continuation from yesterday) Dr.Nakazawa
  3. New PI (continuation from yesterday) Dr. Konda
  4. Business Meeting
     4.1 Integration Issues (Dr. Shibata)
     4.2 Validation Issues (Drs. Koike and Aonashi)
     4.3 Future Meetings (Dr. Shibata)
     4.4 Miscellaneous
  5. Joint AMSR/AMSR-E Science Meeting
     5.1 Modification of Cal/Val Plan (RESTEC Mr. Nakajima)
    5.2 Cooperative Plan for AMSR/AMSR-E Validation (Dr. Koike)
     5.3 EOS AQUA Status (Dr. Hwang)
     5.4 Miscellaneous

Summary of Major Discussions

1. Launch Date of ADEOS-II (Mr. Ito)

 Mr. Ito reported that the space activities commission (SAC) meeting was held yesterday and the Science & Technology Agency requested that ADEOS-II launch be set for JFY2001. The SAC is expected to evaluate the request and decide next week according to today's newspaper.

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2. New PI (continuation from yesterday) Dr. Nakazawa

 Dr. Nakazawa presented his research plan. His presentation covered the following topics.
  • Outline of the proposal.
  • Expected research results.
  • Method; aerosonde,
Questions & Answers, and comments:
Question (Dr. Koike): Do you have any plan to introduce other instruments (for example) in addition to aerosonde?
Answer: I have no plan to install rain gauge network. I plan to measure wind and water vapor.
Question (Dr. Petty): How much connected turbulence do you expect in the aerosonde flight?
Answer: I don't expect significant turbulence; sometimes 6 g.
Question (Dr. Petty): Are there any flight patterns you plan to implement?
Answer: It depends on how many aerosondes we can fly. The maneuver is really important. We may have to think about several different maneuver patterns.
Question (Dr. Chang): How expensive is this?
Answer: We are in negotiation with Greg Holland. Greg Holland sells services, not flights. Roughly speaking, it costs us $100,000 for one-month operation.
Question (Dr. Comiso): Is there any alternative way to launch the instrument? Answer: They may be developing a catapult type of launcher, which won't require a runway.

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3. New PI (continuation from yesterday) Dr. Konda

 Dr. Konda presented his research plan. His presentation covered the following topics.
  • Objectives; improve a standard algorithm to calculate wind speed.
  • Retrieval technique; brightness temperature.
  • Classification.
Questions & Answers, and comments: None.

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4. Business Meeting

4.1 Integration Issues (Dr. Shibata)
  • For the new PIs, Dr. Shibata presented the guidelines for preparing a research proposal.
  • Dr. Shibata described how to use the quality flag (0-255).
  • Dr. Petty expressed his concern of using his own quality flag. Dr. Shibata responded that this issue needs further discussion.
  • Dr. Shibata proposed to hold a small meeting for sometime around March next year in Japan. The soil moisture group meeting is schedule for sometime around next February in Oklahoma.
  • Dr. Petty asked if he could discuss Toolkit for common library in this week. Dr. Shibata responded affirmatively.
  • Mr. Nakagawa announced that JAXA plans to hold a pre-launch meeting in July - year targeting August next the AQUA launch. The first few months after the AQUA launch will be very busy.
  • Dr. Shibata requested the PIs to travel to EORC to check the integration & test results. PI's prefer to do checking remotely and visit EORC if problems occur.
  • AQUA/AMSR-E will become operational before L+30 days. AMSR-E data will be downlinked much before L+30 day for the instrument checkout purposes.
  • Integration test and algorithm tuning will be conducted for AMSR-E and AMSR data.
  • After AMSR is launched, JAXA EOC will generate standard products for both AMSR and AMSR-E.

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4.2 Validation Issues (Drs. Koike and Aonashi)
  • Dr. Koike presented a cooperative plan for AMSR/AMSR-E validation; data exchange, cooperative field campaign, and organizing Cal/Val planning team.
  • There are no standard PIs for soil moisture. To organize a Cal/Val planning team for soil moisture, JAXA needs PIs for soil moisture.
  • 4 months after the launch, a workshop will be held to evaluate both standard and research algorithms.
  • Dr. Koike presented the detailed plans for both operational path and experiment path.
  • Each PI is requested to provide Cal/Val data to EORC. EORC compares the Cal/Val data. Cal/Val team will communicate with standard and research algorithm teams in workshops that are planned after launch.
  • Immediately after AQUA launch, MODIS will conduct a field campaign for ocean products.
  • Mobile radar is also available for precipitation products.

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4.3 Future Meetings (Dr. Shibata)
  • Mr. Nakagawa proposed to hold a joint GLI/AMSR meeting next year. Mr. Nakagawa will coordinate with the GLI team.
  • Some PIs will be too busy with field campaign in July 2001 for holding a workshop.

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4.4 Miscellaneous

 JAXA will try to distribute a list and research themes of the new PIs in late December.

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5.Joint AMSR/AMSR-E Science Meeting

5.1 Modification of Cal/Val Plan (RESTEC Mr. Nakajima)

 (1) Financial aspect:
  • To accommodate all proposed field campaigns in a limited budget.

(2) Technical aspect:
  • AMR experiment should be conducted after AMSR-E data become available.
  • NASA suggested JAXA should be flexible about the schedule for AMR experiment to absorb launch delay.
  • Dr. Aonashi will investigate a possibility to place the Mobil radar next to the operational radar site in Wakasa Bay.
  • Sea ice concentration: The spectrometer is a point detector to measure reflectivity, not an imaging type.
  • JAXA's instruments such as AMR can be mounted on the U.S. spacecraft. AMR modification will be completed in the end of next January. After test flights, AMR will be ready for use in next March.

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5.2 Cooperative Plan for AMSR/AMSR-E Validation (Dr. Koike)

 Wakasa Bay, Oklahoma, Antarctica, Mongolia, and Tibet are candidates for collaboration.

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5.3 EOS AQUA Status (Dr. Hwang)
  • The launch date is 21 December 2000.
  • NASA found some deficiency with AIRS. The repair will cost $20M and 3 months and the NASA headquarters rejected to spend any additional funding.

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5.4 Miscellaneous

(1) The next ATDB meeting: Washington D.C. area.
(2) First image of AMSR-E: Dr. Hwang will find the date for NASA to downlink the first AMSR-E image.
(3) AMSR web site: http://www.ghcc.msfc.nasa.gov/AMSR
(4) Public outreach: ADEOS-II AMSR brochure is available.
(5) The next meeting will be held in conjunction with the next workshop.

Product Field Location Period
Water Vapor Cloud, Liquid Water Herurajima Island
Mainamidaitojima Island		 Apr. 2000-
Precipitation Wakasa Bay
Tibetan Plateau
Ishigakijima
Siberia, Mobil Radar		 Jan-Feb. 2001-2002
Jun-Jul. 2001- 2002
May-Jun. 200X
Jan-May. 2003
Sea Ice Okhotsk
Antarctic Ocean
Arctic, Seattle/ Fairbanks		 Jan-Feb. 2003-2004
Aug. 2001, Winter 2003
Winter/Spring 2002 & 2004
Snow Water Equivalence Siberia
Tibet
Finland
Colorado (Cold Land/ Snow Mission)		 Winter 2001 & 2002
Winter 2001 & 2002
Mar. 2001
2001-2002
Soil Moisture Tibetan Plateau, Thailand, Mongolia
Oklahoma
(Iowa, Idaho, Arizona, Mississippi/Georgia)		 Summer 2001-2002
Jul. 2001
Candidates for joint campaign: Wakasa Bay, Oklahoma, Antarctica, Mongolia, and Tibet Back to index