Welcome to the  
AACES-1 Project
Australian Airborne Cal/val Experiment for SMOS
Home page
Google Earth (KML file)
Workplan SMOS
AMSR-E
WindSat
ASCAT
PALSAR
ASAR MODIS
MTSAT-1R
ASTER
Landsat
CHRIS
AVNIR-2 PLMR data
Thermal Infrared data
Multi-Spectral data Monitoring stations
Soil moisture sampling
Vegetation sampling
Roughness sampling Campaign shapefiles
DEM
Land use
Climate data
Rainfall data
Soil classification
Soil water capacity
Soil texture analysis
AACES homepage
Moisturemap homepage
Source: http://www.cpi.com, accessed on 28th, Apr. 2010

WindSat

WindSat is a multi-frequency polarimetric microwave radiometer with similar frequencies to the AMSR-E sensor, with the addition of full polarisation for 10.7, 18.7 and 37.0GHz channels and the lack of an 89.0GHz channel. Developed by the Naval Research Laboratory, it is one of the two primary instruments on the Coriolis satellite launched on 6th January 2003. WindSat is continuing to outlive its three year design life, with data free of charge to scientists from here. WindSat data can be downloaded from NRL.



Mission WindSat
Sensor Polarimetric microwave radiometer
Spacecraft Coriolis
Launch date 6th, Jan. 2006
Design life 3 years
Orbit Sun-synchronous orbit, at an altitude of 840km.
Space operations control centre U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
Center frequency (GHz) 6.8 10.7 18.7 23.8 37.0
Band Width (MHz) 125 300 750 500 2000
Polarisation V, H V, H, ±45, L, R V, H, ±45, L, R V, H V, H, ±45, L, R
Incidence angle 53.5 49.9 55.3 53.0 53.0
Swath 1025km, ~1000km in forward-looking, ~350km in aft-looking.
Spatial resolution (km) 40 × 60 25 × 38 16 × 27 12 × 20 8 × 13
Temporal resolution ~8 days

WindSat overpass time

WindSat coverage for the Murrumbidgee Catchment during the first AACES campaign have been determined from a Fortran program based on NORAD data for 6th, Nov. 2009, and are summarized in the table below. Date and time are in UTC. Aircraft flights were assumed to be conducted at 7:45 for descending overpass and 20:35 for ascending overpass.

  : Transect flight within 6 hours   : Patch flight within 6 hours
: Fully covered : Partially covered

UTC Date Start UTC Time Duration (s) Flight Patch
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2010/1/18 8:55:07 145          
2010/1/18 20:15:35 71                  
2010/1/19 8:37:06 184  
2010/1/19 19:57:15 168 T00  
2010/1/20 8:19:17 176  
2010/1/20 19:39:35 172  
2010/1/21 8:02:10 112                
2010/1/21 19:22:05 160 P01      
2010/1/24 8:49:45 162      
2010/1/24 20:09:56 124 P02            
2010/1/25 8:31:44 188  
2010/1/25 19:51:58 172  
2010/1/26 8:14:05 168      
2010/1/26 19:34:19 172  
2010/1/27 19:17:01 142 P03          
2010/1/29 9:02:37 95                  
2010/1/30 8:44:24 174  
2010/1/30 20:04:30 150          
2010/1/31 8:26:26 186  
2010/1/31 19:46:43 172  
2010/2/1 8:08:58 153          
2010/2/1 19:29:05 172 T01
2010/2/2 19:12:05 112                
2010/2/4 8:57:06 135            
2010/2/4 20:17:53 17                    
2010/2/5 8:39:04 182  
2010/2/5 19:59:09 165      
2010/2/6 8:21:12 179  
2010/2/6 19:41:29 172 P05
2010/2/7 8:03:57 129              
2010/2/7 19:23:55 166      
2010/2/8 19:07:24 55                    
2010/2/10 8:51:44 156        
2010/2/10 20:11:59 106                
2010/2/11 8:33:44 187  
2010/2/11 19:53:53 171 P06
2010/2/12 8:16:00 173    
2010/2/12 19:36:14 173  
2010/2/13 7:59:08 81                    
2010/2/13 19:18:51 152          
2010/2/15 9:04:50 59                    
2010/2/16 8:46:25 169    
2010/2/16 20:06:31 140            
2010/2/17 8:28:25 188  
2010/2/17 19:48:40 172 P09
2010/2/18 8:10:53 161 P10      
2010/2/18 19:31:02 172  
2010/2/19 19:13:53 129 T02            
2010/2/21 8:59:12 119                
Created: January 2010
Last Modified: August 2010
Maintainer: YE Nan, Ye.Nan@monash.edu