IGF::OT::IGF PROPOSAL TITLE: CONTINUATION OF INTER-CALIBRATED OCEAN PRODUCTS FROM GCOM-W AMSR2 THIS PROPOSAL IS FOR THE CONTINUATION OF THE AMSR2 OCEAN RETRIEVALS BEING PRODUCED BY REMOTE SENSING SYSTEMS (RSS). AS PART OF THE CURRENT U.S. PARTICIPATING INVESTIGATOR (USPI) PROJECT, RSS RELEASED ITS FIRST VERSION OF OCEAN PRODUCTS IN JANUARY 2014. THE PROPOSED INVESTIGATION WILL (1) CONTINUE THE PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE AMSR2 OCEAN PRODUCTS, (2) MONITOR THE QUALITY OF THE AMSR2 BRIGHTNESS TEMPERATURE (TB) AND OP VIA ONGOING VALIDATION, AND (3) IMPLEMENT A NUMBER OF IMPROVEMENTS TO ENHANCE THE SCIENTIFIC USAGE OF THE OCEAN PRODUCTS. THE PROPOSED IMPROVEMENTS ARE: 1. IMPROVE AMSR2 TB CALIBRATION 2. RETRIEVE SST AND WIND SPEED THROUGH RAIN 3. IMPLEMENT RADIO FREQUENCY INTERFERENCE (RFI) MITIGATION 4. REMOVE SUN GLITTER 5. INCLUDE ERROR BARS ON THE RETRIEVALS ONE OF THE GREATEST CONSEQUENCES OF OUR WARMING CLIMATE WILL LIKELY BE RELATED TO CHANGES IN THE HYDROLOGIC CYCLE AND GENERAL CIRCULATION. DROUGHTS, FLOODS, AND SEVERE STORMS HAVE ENORMOUS IMPACTS ON SOCIETY. OF ALL SPACEBORNE SENSORS, PROBABLY NONE PROVIDE A MORE COMPLETE AND RELEVANT ARRAY OF ESSENTIAL CLIMATE VARIABLES FOR STUDYING THESE HYDROLOGIC PROCESSES THAN MICROWAVE (MW) RADIOMETERS SUCH AS NASA S TMI/GMI AND JAXA S AMSR-E/AMSR2. OVER THE WORLD S OCEANS THESE SATELLITE MW RADIOMETERS TAKE HIGHLY ACCURATE MEASUREMENTS OF SEA-SURFACE TEMPERATURE (SST) AND WIND, TOTAL WATER VAPOR AND CLOUD WATER, AND RAIN RATE, ALL OF WHICH ARE INDICATORS OF VARIABILITY IN THE HYDROLOGIC CYCLE AND GENERAL CIRCULATION. THIS COLLECTION OF SATELLITE RETRIEVALS IS CALLED THE OCEAN PRODUCTS EARTH SYSTEM DATA RECORD (OP-ESDR), AND IT EXTENDS FROM 1987 TO PRESENT (MW SST STARTS IN 1997). AMSR2 IS A PARTICULARLY IMPORTANT COMPONENT OF THE OP-ESDR. IT EXTENDS THE OP-ESDR FOR PROBABLY ANOTHER 10 YEARS AND HAS SEVERAL ADVANCEMENTS OVER ITS PREDECESSOR AMSR-E, INCLUDING ADDITIONAL CHANNELS AT 7.3 GHZ, A BETTER DESIGNED HOT LOAD FOR IMPROVED CALIBRATION, AND A LARGER ANTENNA FOR HIGHER SPATIAL RESOLUTIONS. AS SUCH, AMSR2 REPRESENTS THE MOST CAPABLE MW IMAGING RADIOMETER TO DATE. OTHER THAN WINDSAT WHICH HAS A VERY NARROW SWATH, AMSR2 IS CURRENTLY THE ONLY SATELLITE SENSOR IN OPERATION THAT IS PROVIDING THROUGH-CLOUD SST RETRIEVALS ON A GLOBAL BASIS. MW SST RETRIEVALS ARE ESSENTIAL TO CLIMATE RESEARCH IN THAT THEY ARE FREE OF ATMOSPHERIC ERRORS AND SAMPLING BIASES DUE TO WATER VAPOR, NON-RAINING CLOUDS, AND AEROSOLS.