WMO OSCAR | Details for Instrument AMI-SCAT

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Instrument: AMI-SCAT

Instrument details

Acronym	AMI-SCAT
Full name	Active Microwave Instrument - Scatterometer
Purpose	Sea surface wind vector. Also large-scale soil moisture
Short description	C-band (5.3 GHz), 3 side looking antennas
Background	One operating mode of AMI (Active Microwave Instrument) on ERS-1 and ERS-2
Scanning Technique	One 500-km swath starting from 200 km off-track. 3 looks each pixel (45, 90 and 135° azimuth)
Resolution	Best quality: 50 km; sampling: 25 km
Coverage / Cycle	Global coverage in 3 days average, depending on operation mode (alternative to AMI-SAR, duty cycle about 70 %)
Mass	325.8 kg	Power	4800 W	Data Rate	500 kbps

Providing Agency	ESA
Instrument Maturity	Flown on an R&D satellite
Utilization Period:	1991 to 2011
Last update:	2012-06-06

Detailed characteristics

Satellites this instrument is flying on

Note: a red tag indicates satellites no longer operational, a green tag indicates operational satellites, a blue tag indicates future satellites

European Remote-sensing Satellite (ESA)
- ERS-1 (see instrument status) Oct 1991 - Mar 2000
- ERS-2 (see instrument status) Jul 1995 - Jul 2011

Instrument classification

Earth observation instrument
Active and radio-occultation sensor
Scatterometer

WIGOS Subcomponents

Subcomponent 1
Scatterometers [in SSO]
Scatterometer [in SSO]

Mission objectives

Primary mission objectives

Wind speed (near surface)
Wind vector (near surface)

Evaluation of Measurements

The following list indicates which measurements can typically be retrieved from this category of instrument. To see a full Gap Analysis by Variable, click on the respective variable.

Note: table can be sorted by clicking on the column headers
Note: * Primary mission objective.

Variable	Relevance for measuring this variable	Operational limitations	Explanation
Biomass	3 - high	Index only.. Coarse spatial resolution.	C-band sensitive to total biomass
Leaf Area Index (LAI)	3 - high	Coarse spatial resolution.	C-band scatterometer sensitive to LAI
Snow cover	3 - high	Coarse spatial resolution.. Thick snow only.	Scatterometer in C-band (around 5.3 GHz)
Snow status (wet/dry)	3 - high	Coarse spatial resolution.. Thick snow only.	Scatterometer in C-band (around 5.3 GHz)
Snow water equivalent	5 - marginal	Coarse spatial resolution.. Ground stations network needed.	Scatterometer in C-band (around 5.3 GHz)
Soil moisture (in the roots region)	3 - high	Coarse spatial resolution.. Affected by vegetation.	Scatterometer in C-band (around 5.3 GHz). Assimilation process required
Soil moisture at surface	3 - high	Coarse spatial resolution.. Affected by vegetation.	Scatterometer in C-band (around 5.3 GHz)
Wind speed (near surface)*	1 - primary	Over sea only.	C-band scatterometer around 5.3 GHz
Wind vector (near surface)*	2 - very high	Cloud sensitive.. Over sea only.. Highly indirect.	C-band scatterometer around 5.3 GHz
Sea-ice type	1 - primary	No specific limitation.	Scatterometer, C-band (around 5.3 GHz). Type interpreted as age/roughness