These files contain the Ama region mask used in (Madsen and Long, 2016; 
Madsen, 205, and Minor, 2016) for cross-calibrating scatterometers 
using the Amazon Rainforest.  The mask is based on the Scatterometer 
Climate Record Pathfinder (SCP) standard Ama region.

Several files are available:

MinorsAmaMask.mat  Matlab .mat file containg an image of 1's and 0's of pixels
		   inside of or outside the mask area.  The .mat file contains
		   arrays with the lat/lon for each pixel

que-AmaMask.sir.mask.gz  a BYU .sir-formatted file containing a pixel image
			 of the mask.  The projection information is contained
			 in the file header, see documentation for BYU .sir
			 file format at www.scp.byu.edu

que-AmaMask.sir.mask.gif a .gif browse image of the previos file.\

The mask image is based on a simple lat/lon projection:
   Rectangular Lat/Long projection:
   Size (deg):     47.000000 , 31.000000
   Lon, Lat scale: 24.000000 , 24.000000 (pix/deg)
   Offsets:        -80.000000 , -24.000000

Note that the image origin is at the lower-left corner of the area (which 
is upside down compared to matlab's standard image scheme).

The mask is derived from 10 years of QuikSCAT data from 1999-2009.  Note:
it is likely that deforestation is changing the mean value of the 
Ku-band backscatter on some areas.  So, the mask should not be viewed as 
purely static. Future comparisons should review if/when individual pixels
should be excluded due temporal changes.  Note that in developing the 
mask some isolated pixels that normally would have been not been included 
in the mask due to mean value or variance but were otherwise in a 
spatially homogenous vegetation area, were included in the mask so that 
the region selection was "smooth and robust".

References:

N.M. Madsen and D.G. Long, Calibration and Validation of the RapidScat 
Scatterometer Using Tropical Rainforests, IEEE Transactions on 
Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Vol. 54, No. 5, pp. 2846-2854, 
doi:10.1109/TGRS.2015.2506463, 2016. 

F. Dayton Minor, Calibration of RapidScat Instrument Drift, Master's 
Thesis, Brigham Young University, Utah, 2016.

Nathan M. Madsen, Calibration and Validation of the RapidScat 
Scatterometer Using Natural Land Targets, Master's Thesis, Brigham 
Young University, Utah, 2015.