Gap analyses by variable or by type of mission or by WIGOS subcomponent

Please select either a variable or a type of mission to display a time chart of satellite instruments having the potential to provide the corresponding measurements. The selection is based on design characteristics (Expert analysis) or declared mission objectives (Simplified analysis). Such a preliminary analysis does not replace a detailed assessment of the actual instrument performances, data availability, and quality of derived environmental data records against specific user requirements.

Note: The chart can be sorted by clicking on the header columns and filtered by instrument properties when applicable. Select the period of interest with the cursor at the bottom of the chart. Future missions which are not firmly planned are shaded with stripes. A warning icon (Important note) indicates degraded satellite: hover over the icon for details. The chart is followed by a table of all potentially relevant instruments.

Select a variable

or select a type of mission

Select WIGOS subcomponents

Analysis
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In "Simplified" mode, the results in the analysis are calculated by looking at each instrument's mission objectives: for each instrument we keep track of what the primary, secondary, and opportunity mission objectives are. These mission objectives indicate that an instrument is primarily envisioned to measure variable X, Y and Z, that variables A, B and C are its secondary objective, and that it may offer the opportunity to measure variables I and II although it is not optimized for that. The simplified Gap analysis produces a timeline based on this information. The simplified Gap analysis is only available for analyzing variables, not for missions.
In "Expert system" mode, the results in the analysis are calculated with an expert system. Internally, OSCAR works with a large set of 1700 rules that determine whether or not an instrument is capable of measuring a given variable, and to what degree. When you select "Expert system", the Gap analysis is performed based on this large set of rules.

Variable sorting criteria

 

Each instrument is assigned with a 5-step rating, evaluated as a blend of several elements.  For this particular Variable, the rating is driven by:

  • the antenna technology (real- or synthetic-aperture);
  • the presence of a supporting active component;
  • the spatial resolution.

 

RATING CRITERIA:

1
  • Real-aperture antenna, co-aligned SAR
  • Real-aperture antenna, high spatial resolution

2
  • Real-aperture antenna, co-aligned scatterometer

3
  • Synthetic-aperture antenna

4
  • -

5
  • -
Measurement timeline for Sea surface salinity

Definition: Salinity of sea water in the surface layer (upper ~ 1 m if observed in MW). In the open ocean the correct term should be “halinity” with reference of the diversity of salts involved.

Hint: Move around in the timeline by scrolling up, down, left or right.

Found 4 results

This table has a large number of results.
Hide inactive instruments
Instrument NRT? Relevance Satellite Orbit
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
2027
2028
2029
2030
2031
2032
2033
2034
2035
2036
2037
SMAP Important noteNo1 - primarySMAP06:00 desc
X
XXXXXXXXXXX
CIMR1 - primaryCIMR06:00 descXXXXXXXX
Aquarius2 - very highSAC-D06:00 desc
X
XXX
X
MIRAS3 - highSMOS06:00 asc
X
XXXXXXXXXXXX
All instruments for measuring Sea surface salinity
Instruments Relevance Operational limitations
SMAP1 - primary
CIMR1 - primary
Aquarius2 - very high
MIRAS3 - high