GRWG Microwave Sub-Group Web Meeting 2015-01-13

GSICS Web Meeting of Microwave Sub-Group

Agenda

1. Update from the GSICS Users Workshop/Session in Shanghai - Tim and Larry
2. Update from the 7th IPWG - Ralph
3. Update on AMSR-2 for JAXA - Keiji
4. Update on GPM X-Cal - AMSR-2, GMI, etc. - Rachel
5. Moving ahead on future endeavors - ALL
   i. Preparation/Plans for GRWG+GDWG Meeting - March, India
6. ii. Linkages to CEOS MW subgroup - Cheng-Zhi
   iii. GDWG MW standards - Tim, Manik
   iv. SMMR sub group - Karsten
7. Next Meeting and Wrap Up

Attendees

Chair: Ralph Ferraro

CMA: Lin Chen

CNES: None

EUMETSAT: Karsten Fennig, Tim Hewison, Viju John

IMD: None

ISRO: None

JAXA: Keiji Imaoka

JMA: Masaya Takahashi

KMA: Jun Park

NASA: Rachel Kroodsma

NIST: None

NOAA: Manik Bali, Larry Flynn, Likun Wang, Wenze Yang, Cheng-Zhi Zou

ROSHYDROMET: None

USGS: None

WMO: None

Summary

We had 14 participants (noted above) at the meeting and followed the above agenda. A few relevant points of the meeting include:

• A GSICS "session" was held as part of the 2014 AOMSUC and for the most part, was well received. In the future, a longer session would allow for more direct interactions with users. It was felt that through this meeting, a three year rotation between a US (AMS Satellite Conference or at NOAA), Europe (EUMETSAT meeting or even IGARSS) and Asia (AOMSUC) could be arranged.
• It was noted that the next Users Workshop would be held at the 2015 EUMETSAT Satellite Conference (Toulouse, France, 21-24 Sept which incidently coincides with SPIE meeting)
• At IPWG-7 (Tsukuba, Japan, 17-21 Nov. 2014), the most relevant action to this group would be the request to CGMS members for specific plans regarding the reprocessing of L1 satellite radiances from MW imagers and sounders
• The AMSR-2 calibration is nearing a new version (March 2015) from JAXA, although there are still some residual differences, mainly at the lower frequencies with TMI and GMI
• The GMI is performing quite well and will likely become the NASA GPM X-Cal standard in the future. Some recent upgrades include a magnetic anomaly and an across scan bias. X-Cal meets again during January 24-25 in Orlando, FL, USA
• The SCOPE-CM project for SSM/I is expanding to include SSMIS (March 2015) and SMMR (mid-2016?); its been difficult to track down the original L1 SMMR data so the Pathfinder data set will be used initially
• It appears that only Tim and Masaaya from the MW SubGroup will be able to attend the GRWG+GDWG meeting in India in March; Tim will explore remote communications buts its likely that we won't have any participation this time
• Headway is being made with the CEOS MW subgroup so a future joint meeting is being considered
• Initial thoughts were expressed regarding a MW standard data set, although there were differing opinions and we sort of ran out of time to discuss too deeply.
• Next meeting in the April timeframe

Outcome

Action:

• ALL - Edit and finalize meeting minutes/actions
• Ralph - Contact NASA Ice group about SMMR L1 archive
• Tim - Explore possibility of remote session in India
• Cheng-Zhi - Develop a joint list of topics with CEOS MW sub group and also potential meeting dates and location
• Larry, Manik, Ralph, Tim, Masaaya - Develop user requirements, what our group can do to meet these, and how these can fit within existing GSICS conventions and systems.