Update on NASA Satellite Programs

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Update on NASA Satellite Programs
1. RADARSAT-1 MOU between NASA, NOAA and CSA
signed last Friday so that data collection by ASF
is extended until about March 2008.
HOWEVER (Draft Statement) Under the current MOU
between the U.S. and Canada, ASF will continue to
acquire new RADARSAT-1 data until RADARSAT-1 is
no longer operational or RADARSAT-2 is certified
to be operational, whichever comes first. After
that time, archival data from RADARSAT-1 will
continue to be available from ASF, but new data
acquisition requests cannot be honored. If you
need SAR data in support of your research within
the ASF and McMurdo masks after the RADARSAT-2
commissioning phase, you may consider using ERS-2
C-band data or ALOS PALSAR L-band data to meet
your research requirements. In addition, global
ALOS data from both the optical sensors and the
SAR sensor is available from through the US
Government Research Consortium, as appropriate,
or ASFs AADN. Feel free to contact ASF User
Services Office for more information on your
options.
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2. The replacement for MODIS is the VIIRS
(Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite). VIIRS
is scheduled to fly on NPP in 2009, and is
vastly inferior to MODIS. The aerosol and ocean
color channels are troubled by cross-talk. This
means that there may be a critical period (2010)
where we lack ocean color measurements. 3.
AQUARIUS The sea surface salinity satellite is
approximately on schedule and due to launch in
2010.
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DECADAL SURVEY MISSIONS RELEVANT TO THE
ARCTIC Four missions are in the early queue
SMOS, CLARRIO, ICESat-II, DESDynI (P-band
Interferometric SAR). Two of these are relevant
to the Arctic ICESat-II and DESDynI. We hope to
get a start on at least one of these missions
this fall, although this may not be possible
until the Continuing Budget Resolution is
resolved. Best guess as to first mission is SMOS
or ICESat-II.
Note that ICESat-I is operating at two 33-day
cycles/year and has just finished a sucessful
operation in support of two ships in the Southern
Ocean under Tony Worby and Steve Ackley. The next
operation will be in March 2008, in support of
sea ice thickness observations in the Arctic.
GRACE is still operating successfully, but under
Decadal Survey, no replacement planned until
2015.