POLDER-2

Polarization and Directionality of the Earth's Reflectances
Data accessOfficial website

POLDER-2 is the 2nd instrument of the CNES POLDER series. It contributed to the continuation of the French-Japanese space cooperation initiated with POLDER-1 and was embarked on-board the ADEOS-2 satellite (JAXA).

Quite identical to POLDER-1, POLDER-2’s main goal is to analyze the properties of clouds and aerosols and to provide information on the directionality of terrestrial reflectances and on the ocean color.

ADEOS-2 (Advanced Earth Observing Satellite)/Midori-2

ADEOS-2 is a Japanese (JAXA) Earth environmental observation satellite, a successor mission to ADEOS with international cooperation.

The scientific objectives of ADEOS-2 are to acquire data contributing for international research on global change (carbon cycle and water and energy cycle), as well as for applications in such fields as meteorology and fishery. ADEOS-2 is the Japanese contribution in the framework of the International Earth Observation System (IEOS).

The satellite was launched on December 14, 2002 on a H-IIA Japanese vehicle. On October 24, 2003, an anomaly in the solar panel led to a total loss of power to the satellite and the termination of the mission.

Main ADEOS-2 orbit parameters:

  • Sun-synchronous polar orbit
  • Altitude : 803 km
  • Inclination : 98,69°
  • Local time crossing equator: 10h30
  • Cycle : 4 days
Illustration of the ADEOS-2 spacecraft (image credit: JAXA)

Sensors on-board ADEOS-2

  • AMSR (Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer), an eight frequency total-power microwave radiometer with dual polarization for measurement of sea surface temperature (SST), soil moisture, sea wind speed, water equivalent of snow cover, sea ice distribution, precipitable water – NASDA instrument
  • GLI (Global Imager), a 36-channel VIS/IR imaging radiometer for studying and monitoring the carbon cycle in the ocean – 23 VNIR bands, 6 SWIR bands, 7 TIR bands, 250 m/1 km spatial resolution, 1600 km swath width – NASDA instrument
  • SeaWinds, an active microwave radar with dual-beam for measurements of near-surface wind velocity and cloud cover over oceans – 13.4 GHz, 50 km resolution, 1800 km swath width – NASA instrument
  • ILAS-II (Improved Limb Atmospheric Spectrometer-II), visible and IR range spectrometer for measurement of atmospheric trace gases and the pressure and temperature profiles by the solar occultation technique – NIES (National Institute for Environmental Studies – Japan) instrument
  • POLDER-2 – CNES instrument
  • DCS (Data Collection System) referred to as ARGOS-Next, offering worldwide capabilities for location and environmental data collection for fixed and moving platforms – NASDA/CNES instrument

POLDER INSTRUMENT

POLDER instrument is a large field of view imaging radiometer. It analyses the intensity and direction of light reflected by the Earth and its atmosphere, as well as its polarization. Such measurements reveal some interesting properties of clouds and aerosols, thereby telling us more about how they affect climate.

First natural and polarized light images acquired by POLDER 2
on Feb. 1, 2003 over Spain and North Africa
(image credit: CNES)

Products

Level-1 and Level-2 products are daylight orbit passes whereas Level-3 products are global scale, daily and monthly syntheses (averages and statistics).

The processing of Level 1 was carried out by the CNES. The products are archived and distributed by CNES.

The scientific processing of aerosol, clouds, radiation and water vapour products was done by the ICARE Data and Services Center of AERIS. The products are archived and distributed by ICARE.

The products available in the catalog cover the period from April 2, 2003 to October 24, 2003.

The complete archive of POLDER-2 data has been reprocessed at the end of 2007 with the enhanced algorithms developed in the framework of the PARASOL project.

tag Tags

Thematiques :aerosolcloud
Typologie de projet :Space data

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