BackForwardInstrument:  ASCAT 

Instrument details
Acronym ASCAT
Full name Advanced Scatterometer
Purpose Sea surface wind vector. Also large-scale soil moisture
Short description
  • C-band (5.255 GHz), 1 MHz bandwidth, side looking both left and right.  3 antennas on each side
  • Monitoring and calibration information here
Background

Evolution of the AMI-SCAT flown on ERS-1 and ERS-2
Scanning Technique

Two 550-km swaths separated by a 700-km gap along-track.  3 looks each pixel (45, 90 and 135° azimuth)
Resolution Best quality: 50 km – standard quality: 25 km – basic sampling: 12.5 km
Coverage / Cycle Global coverage in 1.5 days
Mass 260 kg Power 215 W Data Rate 42 kbps

 

Providing Agency ESA
Instrument Maturity Flown on operational programme
Utilization Period: 2007 to 2027
Last update: 2024-09-23
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

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.
VariableRelevance for measuring this variableOperational limitationsExplanation
Biomass3 - highIndex only.. Coarse spatial resolution.C-band sensitive to total biomass
Leaf Area Index (LAI)3 - highCoarse spatial resolution.C-band scatterometer sensitive to LAI
Sea-ice type1 - primaryNo specific limitation.Scatterometer, C-band (around 5.3 GHz). Type interpreted as age/roughness
Snow cover3 - highCoarse spatial resolution.. Thick snow only.Scatterometer in C-band (around 5.3 GHz)
Snow status (wet/dry)3 - highCoarse spatial resolution.. Thick snow only.Scatterometer in C-band (around 5.3 GHz)
Snow water equivalent5 - marginalCoarse spatial resolution.. Ground stations network needed.Scatterometer in C-band (around 5.3 GHz)
Soil moisture (in the roots region)3 - highCoarse spatial resolution.. Affected by vegetation.Scatterometer in C-band (around 5.3 GHz). Assimilation process required
Soil moisture at surface3 - highCoarse spatial resolution.. Affected by vegetation.Scatterometer in C-band (around 5.3 GHz)
Wind speed (near surface)*1 - primaryOver sea only.C-band scatterometer around 5.3 GHz
Wind vector (near surface)*2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Over sea only.. Highly indirect.C-band scatterometer around 5.3 GHz