IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - June 2014 - 47

JAXA Earth Observation
Programs Digest
Masanobu shiMada
Earth Observation Research Center, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency,
Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

Abstract-This paper digests the current and the near
future scenario of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
(JAXA) Earth Observation Program (EOP). JAXA's EOP
has over thirty years history and experiences since the
mid of 1980s. Medium to large scale EO satellites with
various optical and radar sensors, i.e., MOS-1/1b, JERS-1,
ADEOS, ADEOS-II, ALOS, GOSAT, and GCOM-W1, were
developed. ALOS-2 was
launched on May 24,
2014 as the successor of
the ALOS for the high
resolution land monitoring in all weather conditions. Aqua/AMSR-E and
TRMM/PR were onboard
the NASA satellites as the
international joint mission instruments. Airborne SAR systems were
developed for further
investigations and R&D
of the SAR data. Their
mission objectives fully
synchronize with the
Group on Earth ObservaSpecial Section on
tion (GEO) [1].
I. INTRODUCTION
AXA has 30 years history of the Earth Observation Program (Fig. 1 and Table
1) since early 1980s. During these periods, we have been
accumulating the experiences and knowledge on the
Earth Observation, i.e., the earth observation data from
the satellite, sensor technology, calibration and validation, skills and method for processing and interpretation
of the data, knowledge on Earth Observation analysis,
and the dynamic of the Earth. When we look back to the
past, JAXA EO can be divided into four phases, 1) phase-1

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MGRS.2014.2318308
Date of publication: 24 June 2014

june 2014

ieee Geoscience and remote sensing magazine

of between 1980s to 1990s with MOS-1 and JERS-1 to
learn more on the Earth Observation as the path finding
mission to the future, 2) in Phase-2, the sensor development and provision to the NASA satellite contributed significantly to achieve the global observation on the ocean
surface temperature and the rain distribution measurement, 3) Phase-3 experimentally provided very large scale
earth observation satellites with the internationally provided Announcement of Oppor t unit y
(AO) sensors, i.e., ADEOS, and ADEOS-II, 4)
Phase-4 is more sophisticated and matured phase
with the three different
mission objectives, all
of which meet the GEO
missions. Climate change
observation mission consists of the GCOMW1,
GPM-DPR, GCOM-C1,
a nd t he E a r t h C A R E .
Global warming mission
consists of the GOSAT,
Space Agencies
and the land observation
is conducted by the ALOS
Image lIcensed by Ingram PublIshIng
and ALOS-2. Airborne
sensors were also developed for the higher resolution land observation mission
from the mid of 1990s.
In this paper, we will focus on the five missions below.
They are ALOS-2, Pi-SAR-L2, GCOM-W1, GPM, and GOSAT.
II. ALOS-2
ALOS-2 program started in 2008 as the ALOS follow-on
mission as such that flies on 2-ton satellite installing the
functionally enhanced L-band SAR with four major mission objectives, i.e., (1) Disaster monitoring (including
the solid earth research), (2) Environmental monitoring
for sustainable earth in forestry, cryosphere, and sea ice,
2168-6831/14©2014IEEE

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - June 2014