AQUA

AQUA

AQUA is a US polar orbiting satellite for earth observation, focusing espcially on the water cycle. It embed six sensors, two of them of major interest for the oceanographic community :the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E), a microwave radiometer with the unique ability to provide sea surface temperature data through cloud coverage (if no rain contamination), and the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) which provides high resolution sea surface temperature and ocean color observations.

NASA

Sun synchronous, near-polar orbit

04/05/2002

Operational

AQUA AMSR-E data are used by CERSAT to compute the ODYSSEA gap-free sea surface temperature fields (thanks to the ability of AMSR-E to deliver SST observations over cloudy areas) and sea-ice drift maps. The MODIS reflectance data are also processed at CERSAT to compute custom ocean color products over European coastal areas.