Earth Data School
About
Full catalog/AMSREL1A
AMSREL1A·v3·dataset

Raw microwave sensor counts (AMSR-E/Aqua)

AMSR-E/Aqua L1A Raw Observation Counts V003
land NASA NSIDC_CPRD Level 1A HDF-EOS2
In plain English

What it measures. Raw, uncalibrated counts from a microwave sensor, the earliest usable form of the data before conversion into physical quantities.

How it's made. Processed from the most basic recorded data of the AMSR-E instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite by Japan's Earth Observation Center.

How & where you'd use it. A raw starting-point product; it is generally consumed through the calibrated, higher-level datasets derived from it rather than on its own.

What's measured

SPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › MICROWAVE › SENSOR COUNTS

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2002-06-01 → 2011-10-04
  • Measured byAQUA (AMSR-E)
  • Processing levelLevel 1A
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsHDF-EOS2
  • StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

  • Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
  • Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
  • Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time
Official description

AMSR-E Level-1A observation counts are processed from Level-0 science packet data by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Earth Observation Center (EOC) in Japan.

Get the data

amsrel1a_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="AMSREL1A",
    version="3",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from NSIDC_CPRD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.