First Light AMSR2 Images from the GCOM-W1 Satellite

July 5th, 2012 by Roy W. Spencer, Ph. D.

Yesterday, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) released first-light imagery from the new AMSR2 instrument on JAXA’s GCOM-W1 satellite (“Shizuku”), which replaces the AMSR-E instrument which failed last fall on NASA’s Aqua satellite after 9+ years of observation.

The Shizuku satellite has been successfully boosted into the NASA A-Train satellite constellation, and the AMSR2 spin rate has been increased to its operational value of 40 rpm.

The following two images are not meant to be science-quality, only to demonstrate the instrument is operating as expected:


Operational products from AMSR2 should start flowing in August.


5 Responses to “First Light AMSR2 Images from the GCOM-W1 Satellite”

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  1. Congratulations!
    Soon there will be another, independent, set of instruments looking at Earth.
    Long live AMSR2!

  2. Brian D says:

    That’s good to hear. Any chance we’ll get the interactive graph back on the Discover site? It disappeared again last month.

  3. Joseph says:

    Congratulations! It’s a

    BOY________

    GIRL______

    Other_______A valuable hunk of scientific instruments

    Have a cigar.

  4. Ross J says:

    Ice looks ultra thin in Arctic from this new satellite (AMSR2). Looks precariously in melt down phase.

    The heat tentacles in the oceans along with the prominent warming showing up in both Greenland and Antarctica sea edges look interesting as well.

    What going on here – is our globe warming up?

    I thought it was flat lining in temperature increases?

    Are we wrong about global cooling or CO2 does not impact climate warming to any noticeable level beyond natural.

    Where on earth is all this extra heat energy coming from?

    These satellite images actually convince me that maybe the consensus of climate scientists are correct. Global warming is real.

  5. Let’s just wait and see. Arctic ice lives its own life although effectively influenced by inflow of warmer Atlantic waters, cfr ice-free Murmansk even during the very cold 1939-40 and the Finnish Winter War.

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