Update #2: Effective 1600 UTC on April 24, 2026, the full global coverage for AMSR2 products will be restored in production. This follows the resolution of the geolocation issue.

Update #1: The GAASP preprocessor algorithm has been updated to filter out the orbits with geolocation errors. The Blended Hydro turned back on consuming GCOM AMSR2 data in the final bTPW and bRR products. 

Topic: GCOM-W1 AMSR2 Data/Products Geolocation Issues

Date/Time Issued: April 24, 2026 1830 UTC

Product or Data Impacted: All GCOM-W1 L1, L2, and L3 Products: 

AMSR2_ASD

AMSR2_L1B

AMSR2_L1R

AMSR2_MBT_89A_BUFR

AMSR2_MBT_89B_BUFR

AMSR2_MBT_GSI_BUFR

AMSR2_MBT_LR_BUFR

AMSR2_MBT

AMSR2_PRECIP

AMSR2_SEAICE_NH

AMSR2_SEAICE_SH

AMSR2_SNOW

AMSR2_SOIL

AMSR2_GHRSST

AMSR2_OCEAN

AMSR2_SST_BUFR

AiDT

SMOPS

Blended Hydro

eTRaP

AutoSnow

Date/Time of Initial Impact: Feb 6, 2025 2241 UTC

Date/Time of Expected End: April 24, 2026 1600 UTC

Length of the Outage/Event: 442 days

Details/Specifics of Change: Occasionally, the AMSR2 data experiences geolocation issues. JAXA suspects that the R-GPS of GCOM-W1 has been affected by ground-based jamming and that this is causing the geolocation error. JAXA is looking into the issue to provide a solution until further notice.

Blended Hydro will stop including GCOM data in the final bTPW and bRR products.

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