| The wide swath and frequent overflights permit generation of a wide variety
of OSCAT Image products. The similarity of QuikSCAT and OSCAT means that OSCAT can be viewed
as a continuity mission for QuikSCAT. (Note, however, that OSCAT measurements are at a
slightly different incidence angle. No correction is applied.)
For highest possible spatial resolution, multiple
orbit passes are combined. These are the 'all pass' images. Since generally
orbit passes of a given point on the Earth occur at nearly the same time
of day, time-of-day studies are facilitated by computing images from ascending
(morning) passes only, and descending (evening) passes only.
For improved temporal resolution in the polar regions, daily
local-time-of-day images have been generated.
Images are made both from the OSCAT footprint ("egg") backscatter
measurements and from the "slice" measurements. Generally, slice measurements
yield higher spatial resolution but are noiser than egg measurements.
The nominal image pixel resolution for egg images is 4.45 km/pixel while the nominal image pixel resolution for slice images is 2.225 km/pixel.
Further information is available in the OSCAT
Enhanced Resolution Image Users Notes.
|
Available Image Classes
* Only Ant, Arc, and Grn regions
** Only Ant region
*** Only Arc and Grn regions
+ sea ice masks are in ouev and ousv, Ant and Arc
++ non-polar regions only
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