This is a subset of AMSR-E rain rate product along CloudSat field of view track. The goal of the subset is to select and return AMSR-E data that are within -100 km across the CloudSat track. Thus resultant subset swath is 45 pixels cross-track. Apart from that, all efforts are made to preserve the original HDF-EOS formatting of the source full-sized data.

  The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) instrument on the NASA EOS Aqua satellite provides global passive microwave measurements of terrestrial, oceanic, and atmospheric variables for the investigation of water and energy cycles.

  The original, full-sized, product is Level-2B swath product (AE_Rain), and it  contains instantaneous measurements of rain rate and rain type (convective vs. stratiform), generated from Level-2A brightness temperatures (AE_L2A). The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Profiling algorithm determines rain rate and type over ocean areas, and a Modified GSFC Profiling algorithm over land. Data are stored in HDF-EOS (HDF4) format, and are available from 18 June 2002 until the AMSR-E instrument was turned off due to antenna problems in October 2011.