Japanese Earth Observation Programs

摘要

Japanese Earth observation programs will be described. After the accident of ADOES and stop of JERS-1, the only operating program is TRMM (Topical Rainfall Measuring Mission), which is a joint program with NASA. Future programs can be divided into three categories. One is a long-term global change monitoring programs. ADEOS was the first satellite in this category. Next program is ADEOS2, which will be launched in Nov. 2000. Continuing programs are now called GCOM (Global Change Observation Mission). The first generation of GCOM is divided into two satellites, of which GCOM-A1 will be launched in Feb. 2005 and GCOM-B1 will be launched in Aug. 2005.The second category programs are also dedicated to global change, but more related to process studies. The first mission in this category was TRMM and the second one will be MDS-2 (mission demonstration satellites) which will carry a Mie scattering lidar called ELISE. Other programs include SMILES (Super conducting Millimeter Emission Sounder) and CDL (Coherent Doppler Lidar) on ISS-JEM, Earth radiation mission, etc. The third category programs are composed of high spatial resolution satellites mainly dedicated to land applications. The past MOS-1, MOS-1b and JERS-1 missions were in this category. The next mission is ALOS (Advanced Land Observation Satellite) which will be launched in Aug. 2002. ALOS will carry very highresolution optical sensors and an L-band synthetic aperture radar.