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Four programs, i.e. TRMM, AMSR-E, ASTER, and GOSAT are going on in Japanese Earth Observation programs.
ASTER has lost its short wave infrared channels, but other satellites/sensors are operating well, and TRMM operation
will be continued at least up to 2012. ADEOS2 was failed, but AMSR-E on Aqua is operating. ALOS (Advanced Land
Observing Satellite) was successfully launched on 24th Jan. 2006. ALOS carries three instruments, i.e., PRISM
(Panchromatic Remote Sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping), AVNIR-2 (Advanced Visible and Near Infrared
Radiometer), and PALSAR (Phased Array L band Synthetic Aperture Radar). PRISM is a 3 line panchromatic push
broom scanner with 2.5m IFOV. AVNIR-2 is a 4 channel multi spectral scanner with 10m IFOV. PALSAR is a full
polarimetric active phased array L-band SAR. PALSAR has many observation modes including full polarimetric mode
and scan SAR mode. Unfortunately, ALOS has stopped its operation on 22nd, April, 2011 by power loss. GOSAT
(Greenhouse Gas Observation Satellite) was successfully launched on 29, January, 2009. GOSAT carries 2
instruments, i.e. a green house gas sensor (TANSO-FTS) and a cloud/aerosol imager (TANSO-CAI). The main sensor is
a Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) and covers 0.76 to 15 μm region with 0.2 to 0.5 cm-1 resolution. SMILES
(Super-conducting Millimeter wave Emission Spectrometer) was launched on September 2009 to ISS and started the
observation, but stopped its operation on April 2010. After the unfortunate accident of ADEOS2, JAXA still have plans
of Earth observation programs. Next generation satellites will be launched in 2011-2014 timeframe. They are, GCOMW
and GCOM-C (ADEOS-2 follow on), and GPM (Global Precipitation Mission) core satellite. GPM is a joint project
with NASA and will carry two instruments. JAXA will develop DPR (Dual frequency Precipitation Radar) which is a
follow on of PR on TRMM. Another project is EarthCare. It is a joint project with ESA and JAXA is going to provide
CPR (Cloud Profiling Radar). ALOS F/O satellites are divided into two satellites, i.e. SAR and optical satellites. The
first one of ALOS F/O is called ALOS 2 and will carry L-band SAR, while second one is called ALOS3 and will carry
optical sensors.
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