CoastWatch Product Glossary

Advanced Baseline Imager

 Advanced Clear Sky Processor for Ocean (ACSPO) is the NOAA Enterprise SST system

Advanced Himawari Imager

Ka-band Altimeter

Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS

Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - 2

Earth Observation System - Aqua

>40°N

Advanced Scatterometer
 

Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer

The 24 sectors identified for file naming convention when referring to VIIRS data. 

Also known as the CoastWatch Regional Nodes: OceanWatch Central Pacific, PolarWatch, Great Lakes, East Coast, Atlantic OceanWatch - Caribbean - Gulf of Mexico, WaterWatch (inland rivers), West Coast

Coriolis

European polar region research satellite.

Defense Meteorological Satellite Program
 

80E-160W
90N-90S

Geographically scattered data points

Field Observations are in-situ environmental data collection which measures geophysical targets at point locations. These types of observations are often used to help calibrate remote-sensing instruments by providing "field truth". 

Global Change Observation Mission for Water

A satellite that constantly views a portion of the Earth from a fixed perspective 35,786 kilometers above the Equator, rotating with the Earth as both move through space. The current geostationary satellites operated by the United States are the GOES-R constellation.

180W - 180E
90N - 90S

GPM Microwave Imager

GOES IMAGER (GOES 12-15)
 

Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite - East

Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite - West
 

Global Precipitation Measurement

Himawari

HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model 

An imager is a radiometer that includes a scanning capability to provide a two-dimensional array of pixels. 

Reference altimetry mission

Altimetry reference mission

Data products are discrete, instrument-specific datasets containing unprocessed data at full resolution, time-referenced, and annotated with ancillary information including data quality indicators, calibration coefficients and geo-referencing parameters.

Level-2 data products are derived geophysical variables at the same resolution and locations as the level 1 source data. 

Level-3 data products which are mapped on uniform space-time grid scales, usually with some completeness and consistency

Level-4 data products which are model output or results from analysis of lower level data e.g.variables derived from multiple measurements.

A satellite that orbits the Earth at a relatively low altitude - no greater than 2000 kilometers. All polar-orbiting satellites are in LEO.

An instrument which floats on top of the water and strategically collects in-situ environmental data. 

Meteosat
 

Meteorological Operational satellite - A / B / C

Microwave Imaging Radiometer with Aperture Synthesis

Marine Optical BuoY 

Marine Optical BuoY

Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer

Multi-Spectral Imager for Sentinel-2

Multi-Sensor Level-1 to Level-2 (MSL12) Ocean Color Data Processing System

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - 17 / 18 / 19 / 20 / 21

Ocean Chlorophyll 4 Algorithm. (OC4)

ESA's 4-band combination chlorophyll-a algorithm (OC4ME)

Radiation from the ocean surface of light in the visible wavelengths gives information about the color of the ocean. This "ocean color" (radiances) can be used to estimate chlorophyll concentration (the pigment in plants and phytoplankton responsible for photosynthesis and the dominant source of color in the open ocean) or the coefficients of light attenuation through the water column and other parameters (generally related to biological processes). In coastal areas, other biological compounds and minerals add complexity to interpretation. Clouds will block remotely sensed OC.

Oceanic currents include the movement and transport of sea water across the world's oceans. They are driven by tides, winds, and differences in water density. 

Oceanic Heat Content (OHC) is the measure of the integrated vertical temperature from the sea surface to the depth of the 26°C isotherm and computed from the altimeter-derived isotherm depths in the upper ocean relative to 20°C

Ocean and Land Colour Instrument

An Optical Buoy measures the sunlight incident on and scattered out of the ocean

OceanSat Scatterometer

60N - 90N

60S - 90S

Both thermal and microwave sensors can be used to estimate sea ice.  The thermal method has higher spatial resolution but is impacted by clouds (e.g., VIIRS).  The microwave method is lower spatial resolution but not impacted by clouds (e.g. AMSR-2).

Poseidon 3

Poseidon-3B

Quick Scatterometer Mission

A Radar Altimeter transmits microwave pulses to the ground and receives the return signals after reflection at Earth’s surface.

RadarSat-2

Radar Altimeter Database System (RADS)

RadarSat Constellation Mission

Synthetic Aperture Radar (C-band)

Synthetic Aperture Radar (C-band) for RadarSat constellation

Synthetic Aperture Radar (C-Band)

Satellite with ARGOS and AltiKa

Synthetic Aperture Radar Operational Product System (SAROPS)

ScatSat-1

A Scatterometer is a high frequency microwave radar designed specifically to measure backscattered radiation. 

Satellite altimeters use active radar to observe the surface height of the ocean which is not smooth or flat. Fluid hills and valleys deviate from a reference (mean geoid) height at the ocean surface. These vertical gradients are of interest for sea level rise, storm predictions, ocean currents, ecosystem ecology and other applications.

Spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery maps the surface microwave radar reflectivity at resolutions from a sub-meter to 100 m depending on the particular SAR satellite and mode. Since a radar provides its own illumination, imagery is independent of the time of day. At typical radar frequencies, SARs can image through clouds, so SARs are considered "all-weather" instruments.  Several gephysical parameters can be derived from SAR including sea surface wind speed.

The salinity of seawater at the ocean surface can be remotely sensed using microwave frequencies. Currently, this technique is valid for open ocean measurements, while recognizing decreased sensitivity for colder water. Measurements within approximately 50 km of land are biased by land contamination and less accurate. Salinity is a defining parameter for ocean dynamics and can also serve as a proxy for certain biogeochemical processes.

Satellite SST is the longest and most mature application of ocean remote sensing. Passive observations are made with infrared (IR) sensors onboard multiple polar-orbiting and geostationary platforms, and microwave sensors onboard polar platforms. The IR sensors have higher spatial (1-4km) and temporal (10-15min, onboard geostationary satellites) resolution, and superior radiometric performance.

Sea Surface Winds also known as Ocean Surface Vector Winds (OSVW) for some techniques

Winds, both magnitude (speed) and direction over the ocean drive other physical and chemical processes and so are used to model dynamic earth/ocean/atmosphere coupled systems ocean and are used for marine weather forecasting. Different remote sensing techniques may be used for gathering information on ocean surface winds including active radar and passive microwave

Identifying spatially explicit water masses with particular biogeochemical features using a model and satellite-derived measurements

SeaWinds

Variable coverage. Observations taken as requested over targets of interest.

Sentinel - 1A / 1B

Sentinel - 2A / 2B

Sentinel - 3A / 3B

Sentinel-6

Spinning Enhanced Visible and InfraRed Imager

SAR Interferometer Radar Altimeter

Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer

The Soil Moisture Active Passive

Soil Moisture Active Passive

The Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity

Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership

A Sounder gathers infrared energy emitted from Earth's surface to derive a vertical atmospheric profile (temperature, humidity, etc.) 

Synthetic aperture Radar Altimeter

Special Sensor Microwave - Imager/Sounder

SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) is a type of active data collection where a sensor produces its own energy and then records the amount of that energy reflected back after interacting with the Earth. 

Earth Observation System - Terra

TRMM Microwave Imager

Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission

Visible radiances can be combined to form images that look similar to a "photograph" of the earth and ocean from the satellite perspective.

Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite

15W - 135W
59N - 59S

WindSat