The ALOS PALSAR Global Systematic Acquisition Strategy: 4 Years in Operation (original) (raw)

Implementation of systematic data observation strategies for ALOS PALSAR, PRISM and AVNIR-2

IEEE International IEEE International IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2004. IGARSS '04. Proceedings. 2004, 2004

The Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) is scheduled for launch by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in 2005, and it will carry three remote sensing instruments: an L-band polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR), an along-track 2.5 metre panchromatic resolution stereo mapper (PRISM) and a 10-metre multi-spectral scanner (AVNIR-2). The successor of the JERS-1 satellite (1992-1998), ALOS will not only provide enhanced sensor performance, but also feature an entirely new acquisition concept. Abandoning traditional, local-focused instrument operations, JAXA is implementing a comprehensive acquisition strategy, in which geographical region, sensor mode, acquisition timing and repetition frequency, are fixed in advance, to achieve spatially and temporally consistent, global coverage on a repetitive basis, at the same time as reducing programming and user conflicts.

Earth remote sensing with SMOS, Aquarius and SMAP missions

2016

The first three of a series of new generation satellites operating at L-band microwave frequencies have been launch in the last decade. L-band is particularly sensitive to the presence of water content in the scene under observation, being considered the optimal bandwidth for measuring the Earth's global surface soil moisture (SM) over land and sea surface salinity (SSS) over oceans. Monitoring these two essential climate variables is needed to further improve our understanding of the Earth's water and energy cycles. Additionally, remote sensing at L-band has been proved useful for monitoring the stability in ice sheets and measuring sea ice thickness. The ESA's Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS, 2009-2017) is the first mission specifically launched to monitor SM and SSS. It carries on-board a novel synthetic aperture radiometer with multi-angular and full-polarization capabilities. NASA's Aquarius (2011-2015) was the second mission, devoted to SSS monitoring wi...

NPOESS: Next-Generation Operational Global Earth Observations

Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 2010

have provided global data for weather forecasting and environmental monitoring for nearly 50 years. NPOESS will acquire and deliver critical Earth observation measurements to NOAA and DoD central processing facilities through an innovative global SafetyNet J communications network of 15 unmanned ground stations that will provide significantly reduced global data latency. NPOESS will enable more timely and efficient assimilation of high-quality satellite data into numerical weather prediction (NWP) models for improved environmental forecasts and warnings. NPOESS will employ platforms and instruments that incorporate technological advances from NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) satellites in an integrated mission serving the nation's civilian and military needs for space-based, remotely sensed environmental data. This article summarizes 

Interferometric Capabilities of ALOS PALSAR and its Utilization

2006

JAXA's new land observation satellite, the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) will be launched in 2006. ALOS will carry L-band SAR (PALSAR). It can obtain InSAR/DInSAR products through repeat pass data acquisition in 46-day cycles. PALSAR observation modes were screened to six modes out of 132, combining 18 different off-nadir beams for strip SAR, and five observation modes Fine Beam Single (FBS), Fine Beam Dual (FBD), Direct Transmission (DT), SCANSAR, and polarimetry. The six modes are FBS of 21.5°, FBS of 34.3°, FBS of 41.5°, FBD of 41.5°, SCANSAR (short burst), and POL of 21.5°. PALSAR can provide global coverage three times per year in FBS/FBD mode and once a year in ScanSAR mode. From this acquisition, we will provide Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) by InSAR processing. We will also derive global and local area deformation maps with the DInSAR processing. Application of the DInSAR technique has expanded to various fields. Its utilization in disaster monitoring and m...

A New Paradigm in Earth Environmental Monitoring with the CYGNSS Small Satellite Constellation

Scientific reports, 2018

A constellation of small, low-cost satellites is able to make scientifically valuable measurements of the Earth which can be used for weather forecasting, disaster monitoring, and climate studies. Eight CYGNSS satellites were launched into low Earth orbit on December 15, 2016. Each satellite carries a science radar receiver which measures GPS signals reflected from the Earth surface. The signals contain information about the surface, including wind speed over ocean, and soil moisture and flooding over land. The satellites are distributed around their orbit plane so that measurements can be made more often to capture extreme weather events. Innovative engineering approaches are used to reduce per satellite cost, increase the number in the constellation, and improve temporal sampling. These include the use of differential drag rather than propulsion to adjust the spacing between satellites and the use of existing GPS signals as the science radars' transmitter. Initial on-orbit res...

Remote Sensing Data Acquisition, Platforms and Sensor Requirements

Journal of The Indian Society of Remote Sensing, 1996

Although data available from various earth observation systems have been routinely used in many resource applications, however there have been gaps, and data needs of applications at different levels of details have not been met. There is a growing demand for availability of data at higher repetivity, at higher spatial resolution, in more and narrower spectral bands etc. Some of the thrust areas of applications particularly in the Indian context are; Management of natural resources to ensure sustainable increase in agricultural production, Study the state of the environment, its monitoring and assessment of the impact of. various development actions on the environment, Updating and generation of large scale topographical maps. Exploration/exploitation of marine and mineral resources and Operational meteorology and studying various land and oceanic processes to understand/predict global climate changes. Each of these thrust area of application has many components, related to basic resource areas such as agriculture, forestry, water resources, minerals, marine resources etc. and the field of cartography. Observational requirements for major applications have been summarized as under. Monitoring vegetation health from space remains the most important observational parameter with applications, in agriculture, forestry, environment, hydrology etc. Vegetation extent, quantity and temporal changes are the three main requirements which are not fully realized with RS data available. Vegetation productivity, forest biomass, canopy moisture status, canopy biogeochemistry are some examples. Crop production forecasting is an important application area. Remotely sensed data has been used for identification of crops and their acreage estimation. Fragmented holdings, large spread in crop calendars and different management practices continue to pose a challenge lo remote sensing. Remotely sensed data at much higher spatial resolution than hitherto available as well as at greater repetivity are required to meet this need. Non-availability of cloud-free data in the kharif season is one of the serious problems in operational use of remote sensing for crop inventory. Synthetic aperture radar data al X & Ku bands is necessary to meet this demand. Nutrient stress/disease detection requires observations in narrow spectral bands. In case of forestry applications, multispectral data at high spatial resolution of the order of 5 to 10 metres is required to make working plans at forest compartment level. Observations from space for deriving tree height are required for volume estimation. Observations in the middle infrared region would greatly enhance capability of satellite remote sensing in forest fire detection. Temporal, spatial and spectral observational requirements in various applications on vegetation viewing are diverse, as they address processes at different spatial and time scales. Hence, it would be worthwhile to address this issue in three broad categories. a) Full coverage, moderate spatial resolution with high repetivity (drought, large scale deforestation, forest phenology....). b) Full coverage, moderate to high spatial resolution and high repetivity (crop forecasting, vegetation productivity). c) Selected viewing at high spatial resolution, moderate to high repetivity and with new dimensions to imaging (narrow spectral bands, different viewing angles). A host of agrometeorological parameters are needed to be measured from space for their effective use in development of yield models. Estimation of root-zone soil moisture is an important area requiring radar measurements from space. Surface meteorological observations from space at the desired spatial and temporal distributions has not developed because of heavy demands placed on the sensor as well as analytical operational models. Agrometeorology not only provides quantitative inputs to other applications such as crop forecasting, hydrological models but also could be used for farmer advisory services by local bodies. Mineral exploration requires information on geological structures, geomorphology and lithology. Surface manifestation over localized regions requires large scale mapping while the lithology can be deciphered from specific narrow bands in visible. NIR, MIR and TIR regions. Sensors identified for mapping/cartography in conjunction with imaging spectrometer would seem to cover requirements of this application. Narrow spectral bands in the short regions which provide diagnostics of relevant geological phenomenon are necessary for mineral exploration. Thermal inertia measurements help in better discrimination of different rock units. Measurements from synthetic aperture data which would provide information on geological structures and geomorphology are necessary for mineral exploration. The applications related to marine environment fall in three major areas: (i) Ocean colour and productivity, biological resources; (ii) Land-ocean interface, this includes coastal landforms, bathymetry, littoral transport processes, etc. and; (iii) Physical oceanography, sea surface temperature, winds, wave spectra, energy and mass exchange between atmosphere and ocean. Measurement of chlorophyll concentration accurately on daily basis, sea surface temperature with an accuracy of 0.5 °K. and information on current patterns arc required for developing better fishery forecast models. Improved spatial resolution data are desirable for studying sediment and other coastal processes. Cartography is another important application area. The major problems encountered in relation to topographic map updation are location and geometric accuracy and information content. Two most important requirements for such an application are high spatial resolution data of 1 to 2 metre and stereo capability to provide vertical resolution of 1 metre. This requirement places stringent demands on the sensor specifications, geometric processing, platform stability and automated digital cartography. The requirements for the future earth observation systems based on different application needs can be summarized as follows: Moderate spatial resolution (l50-300m), high repetivity (2 Days), minimum set of spectral bands (VIS, NIR, MIR. TIR) full coverage. Moderate to high spatial resolution (20-40m), high repetivity (4-6 Days), spectral bands (VIS, MR, MIR, TIR) full coverage. High spatial resolution (5-10m) muitispectral data with provision for selecting specific narrow bands (VIS, N1R. MIR), viewing from different angles. Synthetic aperture radar operating in at least two frequencies (C, X, Ku), two incidence angles/polarizations, moderate to high spatial resolution (20-40m), high repetivity (4-6 Days). Very high spatial resolution (1-2m) data in panchromatic band to provide terrain details at cadastral level (1:10,000). Stereo capability (1-2m height resolution) to help planning/execution of development plans. Moderate resolution sensor operating in VIS, NIR, MIR on a geostationary platform for observations at different sun angles necessary for the development of canopy reflectance inversion models. Diurnal (at least two i.e. pre-dawn and noon) temperature measurements of the earth surface. Ocean colour monitor with daily coverage. Multi-frequency microwave radiometer, scatterometer. altimeter, atmospheric sounder, etc.

Calibration and Validation of the Advanced Land Observing SATELLITE-3 “ALOS-3”

The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 2020

The "Advanced Land Observing Satellite-3" (ALOS-3, nicknamed "DAICHI-3") is the next high-resolution optical mission as a successor of the optical mission by the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS, "DAICHI") in Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and will be launched in Japanese Fiscal Year 2020. ALOS-3 is now under developing the flight model. The major missions of ALOS-3 are (1) to contribute safe and secure social including provision for natural disasters, and (2) to create and update geospatial information in land and coastal areas. To achieve the missions, the "WIde-Swath and High-resolution optical imager" (WISH, as a tentative name) is mounted on ALOS-3, which consists of the high-resolution panchromatic-and multispectral-bands. This paper introduces the overview of ALOS-3's mission and the calibration and validation plan at JAXA. The standard product is the system corrected data using the sensor models, which will be provided from the sensor development team. Therefore, the sensor calibration is directly affected to the accuracies of the standard product. In addition, the sensor model based the Rational Polynomial Coefficient will be contained with level 1B2 standard product that can be used to process an ortho rectification and threedimensional measurement from ALOS-3 images. As the target accuracy of WISH's standard products, the geometric accuracies are less than 5 m in horizontal without ground control point (GCP), and 1.25 m in horizontal and 2.5 m in vertical with GCPs (1 sigma), and the radiometric accuracy is +/-10 % as absolutely and +/-5 % as relatively for multispectral band.

Preliminary study on data sets of ADEOS-II and ALOS dedicated to terrestrial carbon observation

Advances in Space Research, 2003

Global carbon observations is a fundamental requirement in the context of the Terrestrial Carbon Observation (TCO) theme within the Integrated Global Carbon Observation (IGCO) theme of Integrated Global Observation Strategy Partners (IGOS-P), for quantitative estimation of key biophysical parameters such as net primary productivity (NPP), carbon stocks and their changes in time. In support to this major international effort, NASDA, through its Earth Observation Research Center (EORC), is planning global systematic data observations using the Phased-Array L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR) onboard the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) from 2004. Like its predecessor-the JERS-1 SAR-the PALSAR instrument will operate in the longer L-band wavelength range (23.5 cm), with added polarimetric features making it attractive for assessment of regenerating and lower-density above-ground biomass, and changes therein. In addition to ALOS, the Global Imager (GLI) instrument onboard the Advanced Earth Observing Satellite-II (ADEOS-II), launched successfully in December 2002, will be used to estimate annual change of global NPP at 1 km and 250 m spatial resolutions. Notable is that the six terrestrial channels on GLI operate with the same wavelength as Landsat ETM+ and MODIS, but all with a spatial resolution of 250 m. This paper describes the preliminary study on the applicability and improvement of data sets from PALSAR on ALOS and, GLI on ADEOS-II for terrestrial carbon observation.

Planned EOS observations of the land, ocean and atmosphere

Atmospheric Research, 1994

The Earth Observing System (EOS), the major NASA contribution to the U.S. Global Change Research Program, consists of: a series of satellites with sensors designed to measure the crucial variables to study processes and monitor changes on the land, ocean and atmosphere; a Data and Information System (EOSDIS) to distribute calibrated data and geophysical and biological products to investigators; and a scientific research program. EOSDIS began in 1991 with organization of existing data sets, with the goal of a useful, accessible system in 1994. The launch of the first EOS platform will occur in 1998, with launches every 18 to 24 months and replacements every 5 years to provide a 15-year series of reliable scientific products. The instruments that comprise the payloads will address the highest priority science and policy questions, as identified by the inter-agency Committee on Earth and Environmental Sciences (CEES) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).