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Full catalog/GPM_1CAQUAAMSRE
GPM_1CAQUAAMSRE·v07·dataset

Raw microwave brightness over Earth (AMSR-E on Aqua)

GPM AMSR-E on AQUA Common Calibrated Brightness Temperatures L1C 1.5 hours 10.5 km V07 (GPM_1CAQUAAMSRE) at GES DISC
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 1
In plain English

What it measures. Raw microwave brightness readings from the Earth, essentially how much microwave energy different surfaces give off across several frequency channels, along with details like scan time, location, and viewing angle.

How it's made. Collected by the AMSR-E microwave instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite and recalibrated to a common standard so it lines up consistently with other microwave sensors.

How & where you'd use it. A low-level building-block input; most people use it indirectly through higher-level products like rainfall estimates rather than working with the raw brightness values directly.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC WATER VAPORATMOSPHERE › PRECIPITATIONSPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › MICROWAVE › BRIGHTNESS TEMPERATURE

Coverage & cadence

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

What you can do with it

  • Map air pollutants — NO₂, aerosols, ozone
  • Track greenhouse gases and Earth's energy budget
  • Feed weather and air-quality analysis
Official description

All 1C products have a common L1C data structure, simple and generic. Each L1C swath includes scan time, latitude and longitude, scan status, quality, incidence angle, Sun glint angle, and the intercalibrated brightness temperature (Tc). One or more swaths are included in a product. The radiometer data are recalibrated to a common basis so that precipitation products derived from them are consistent. 1CSSMIS contains common calibrated brightness temperature from the SSMIS passive microwave instruments flown on the DMSP satellites. Swath S1 has 3 low frequency channels (19V 19H 22V). Swath S2 has 2 low frequency channels (37V 37H). Swath S3 has 4 high frequency channels (150H 183+/-1H 183+/-3H 183+/-7H). S4 has 2 high frequency channels (91V 91H). All the above frequencies are in GHz. Earth observations for all four swaths are taken during a 144o segment of the instrument rotation when SSMIS scans in the direction of foreward satellite motion. We define the spacecraft vector (v) at the center of this segment.

Get the data

gpm_1caquaamsre_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="GPM_1CAQUAAMSRE",
    version="07",
    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 GES_DISC
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.