Long-Term Observations of the Global Water Cycle, Air-Sea Interactions and Polar Environments by GCOM-W/AMSR2

The Global Change Observation Mission-Water (GCOM-W) satellite was launched by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in May 2012. It carries the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2), which is a 6-band multi-frequency, dual-polarization microwave radiometer with a 2-m aperture antenna. The GCOM-W/AMSR2 completed its 5-year designed mission life in May 2017, and has transferred to extended-mission phase. Besides the 10-month gaps between AMSR-E and AMSR2, the AMSR series provide long-term global observation data for studies of the global water cycle, airsea interactions and polar environments. An overview of these studies is given in this paper.