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Five programs, i.e. TRMM, AMSR-E, ASTER, ALOS and GOSAT are going on in Japanese Earth Observation
programs. ASTER has lost its short wave infrared, but other satellites/sensors are operating well, and TRMM operation
will be continued at least 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 SAR. PALSAR has many observation modes including full polarimetric mode and scan
SAR mode. 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. 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, GCOM-W 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 Lband
SAR, while second one is called ALOS3 and will carry optical sensors.
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