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Australian Airborne Cal/val Experiment for SMOS
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The Advanced SCATterometer (ASCAT)

Source: http://www.meted.ucar.edu, accessed on 28th, Apr. 2010

The ASCAT, operating at C-band, provides continuity to the ERS-1 and ERS-2 scatterometers. The ASCAT is onboard the Metop-A satellite, which was launched into a sun-synchronous orbit on 19 October 2006 and has been operational since May 2007. ASCAT operates at a frequency of 5.255GHz in vertical polarisation. Its use of six antennas allows the simultaneous coverage of two swaths on either side of the satellite ground track, allowing for much greater coverage then its predecessors. It takes about 2 days to map the entire globe. A 50 km resolution soil moisture product is now operational from ASCAT, available from EUMETSAT.


Mission ASCAT
Sensor Microwave radar
Spacecraft Metop-A
Launch date 19th, Oct. 2006
Design life (year) 5
Orbit Polar orbit at an angle of 98.7° to the equator and at an altitude of 758km.
Space operations control centre European Meteorological Satellite Organisation (EUMESAT)
Center frequency (GHz) 5.255 (C-band)
Polarisation VV
Swath Two 520km swaths at each side, with 700km gap between them
Spatial resolution (km) 50
Temporal resolution ~2 days for covering global

ASCAT overpass time

ASCAT coverage for the Murrumbidgee Catchment during the first AACES campaign have been determined from a Fortran program based on NORAD data for 6th, Nov. 2009, and are summarized in the table below. Date and time are in UTC. Aircraft flights were assumed to be conducted at 7:45 for descending overpass and 20:35 for ascending overpass.

  : Transect flight within 6 hours   : Patch flight within 6 hours
: Fully covered : Partially covered

UTC Date Start UTC Time Duration (s) Flight Patch
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2010/1/18 11:47:00 282        
2010/1/18 23:05:49 284              
2010/1/19 11:26:54 207            
2010/1/19 22:45:30 248 T00  
2010/1/20 12:46:49 195          
2010/1/20 22:26:23 83                    
2010/1/21 0:06:02 111                  
2010/1/21 12:25:30 279      
2010/1/21 23:44:10 259 P01
2010/1/22 23:23:17 284                
2010/1/23 11:43:47 276      
2010/1/23 23:02:35 282            
2010/1/24 11:23:49 184              
2010/1/24 22:42:22 235 P02    
2010/1/25 12:43:25 215        
2010/1/26 0:02:27 155                
2010/1/26 12:22:11 285          
2010/1/26 23:40:51 268  
2010/1/27 12:01:09 303                    
2010/1/27 23:20:02 284 P03                  
2010/1/28 11:40:36 268  
2010/1/28 22:59:21 281        
2010/1/29 11:20:50 152                
2010/1/29 22:39:17 220 P04      
2010/1/30 12:40:03 232      
2010/1/30 23:58:58 185            
2010/1/31 12:18:53 291            
2010/1/31 23:37:33 275      
2010/2/1 11:57:54 299                  
2010/2/2 11:37:26 259  
2010/2/2 22:56:10 277      
2010/2/3 11:17:57 108                  
2010/2/3 22:36:14 202          
2010/2/4 12:36:44 245  
2010/2/4 23:55:33 208          
2010/2/5 12:15:35 296                
2010/2/5 23:34:18 279        
2010/2/6 11:54:41 295                
2010/2/6 23:13:33 285 P05                  
2010/2/7 11:34:18 248    
2010/2/7 22:53:00 272    
2010/2/8 12:55:12 106                  
2010/2/8 22:33:15 179              
2010/2/9 12:33:27 255  
2010/2/9 23:52:11 227 P07      
2010/2/10 12:12:18 300                  
2010/2/10 23:31:04 282          
2010/2/11 11:51:29 290            
2010/2/11 23:10:19 286 P06              
2010/2/12 11:31:11 236      
2010/2/12 22:49:52 264  
2010/2/13 12:51:41 149                
2010/2/13 22:30:20 150                
2010/2/14 12:30:10 266  
2010/2/14 23:48:52 241 P08    
2010/2/15 12:09:02 304                    
2010/2/15 23:27:51 284            
2010/2/16 11:48:18 285          
2010/2/16 23:07:08 284                
2010/2/17 11:28:07 220          
2010/2/17 22:46:46 255 P09
2010/2/18 12:48:16 179 P10          
2010/2/18 22:27:27 116                  
2010/2/19 0:07:44 68                    
2010/2/19 12:26:55 273    
2010/2/19 23:45:35 253 T02
2010/2/20 23:24:40 284                
2010/2/21 11:45:09 280      
2010/2/21 23:03:57 284              
Created: January 2010
Last Modified: August 2010
Maintainer: YE Nan, Ye.Nan@monash.edu