AMSR-2 Version 8.2 Drift Correction

2021-05-19

Comparisons of the Version 8.0 AMSR-2 retrievals with those from other sources, including other satellite sensors and in situ, have revealed spurious long-term drifts in the Version 8.0 AMSR-2 products.

This problem was traced back to drifts in the AMSR-2 antenna temperatures.

Corrections were applied, and a complete reprocessing was then done.

The corrected mission-long (July 2012 to present) V8.2 dataset is now available.

Version 8.2 is a major update, and we encourage all users, particularly those doing climate studies, to transition to the V8.2 dataset.

The major changes for V8.2 are:
➢ Spurious drifts in AMSR-2 SST, wind, vapor, cloud and rain have been removed.
➢ Water vapor now retrieves high values up to 120 mm in heavy rain.
➢ A new wind speed through rain product: All Weather Wind.
➢ Data files are now in netCDF format.

Release Notes Detailing Drift Correction:

   AMSR-2 Air-Sea Essential Climate Variables, RSS Version 8.2