1. JAXA Agency Report Akihiko KUZE Earth Observation Research Center
Committee on Earth Observation Satellites
JAXA Agency Report
Akihiko KUZE
Earth Observation Research Center
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
CEOS WGCV 43
São José dos Campos, SP, Brazil
April 10-13, 2018

2. JAXA Earth Observation Satellite Lineup
Targets (JFY: Apr-Mar)
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
Disasters & Resources
JERS1/OPS, SAR ( )
ADEOS-I/AVNIR
ALOS/AVNIR2, PALSAR ( )
Climate System
Water Cycle
ADEOS-I/AMSR ( )
Aqua/AMSR-E ( )
Climate change
ADEOS-I/OCTS ( )
ADEOS-II/GLI (2003)
Greenhouse gases
[Land and disaster monitoring]
ALOS-2 / PALSAR-2
ALOS-4
ALOS-2CIRC
ALOS-3
ISS/CIRC
TRMM / PR 2013~
[Precipitation 3D structure]
Feasibility study
with NASA
GPM / DPR
with NASA
[Wind, SST , water vapor, precipitation]
AMSR2-F/O
GCOM-W / AMSR2
[Vegetation, aerosol, cloud, SST, ocean color]
GCOM-C / SGLI
[Cloud and aerosol 3D structure]
with ESA
EarthCARE / CPR
[CO2, CH4,
GOSAT / FTS, CAI 2009~
GOSAT2-F/O
[CO2, CH4, CO]
with MOE
GOSAT-2
JMA meteorological satellites
MTSAT-1R (Himawari-6)
MTSAT-2 (Himawari-7)
[Cloud, aerosol, SST]
[Cloud, SST]
Himawari-8/AHI
Himawari-9 (standby)
Mission status
On orbit
Development
Study
Pre-phase-A

3. GOSAT (2009-) TANSO-FTS and CAI (imager)
Long term data of
Long-term trend of mega cities, possible emission sources, validation sites
(2) Observation score map for sampling optimization
Contents: Long term
CO2, CH4, SIF, AOD measured by GOSAT
Solar-Induced chlorophyll Fluorescence (SIF), Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD), Population density
Both TNASO-FTS and CAI show very slow degradation
Mar. 2018,, Level 1 V210 release 9 year calibrated TIR
(improved non-linearity correction)
Plan for 2018
Partial column product of lower and upper troposphere from simultaneous use of SWIR and TIR (Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.) 3

4. TRMM(-2015) GPM (2013-) Precipitation Rader
Better continuity of the TRMM/PR V8 and the GPM/KuPR V05
GPM/DPR’s calibration factors was changed in V05 released on May 2017, and TRMM/PR’s calibration factors was also changed in TRMM V8 released on Oct
Better continuity was realized in the GPM/KuPR V05 and the TRMM/PR V8.
Comparisons of the NRCS ( 𝜎 0 ) with various sensors
𝜎 NPC 0 𝜃 , 𝑈 10 = 𝜎 NPC 0 0, 8
TRMM PR : 13.8 GHz
GPMCore KuPR : 13.6 GHz
Jason Poseidon : 13.6 GHz
OSTM/Jason-2
Jason-1
KuPR V05A
Jason-3
PR v8
PR v7
KuPR V04A

5. GCOM-W (2012-) AMSR2 microwave radiometer
Instrument
Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2)
Altitude
705 km
Orbital inclination
98.2 deg
Local sun time at Ascending node
13 :30
Successor of Aqua/AMSR-E (launched in May 2002), providing continuous data for climate studies and operational applications
Joining A-train constellation and also GPM constellation
Carrying AMSR2, a multi-polarization and multi-frequency microwave imager
Observing various water-related ECVs at high spatial resolution
Improving on-board calibration target has resulted reduction of annual Tb variation due to calibration and improvement of Tb stability
Achieved designed mission life (5-year) on May 18, 2017, and continues observation
The Roadmap for the Basic Plan on Space Policy was revised in Dec. 2017: “The government should conduct development research on AMSR2’s successor sensor on condition that hosted payload with GOSAT-3 in JFY2018.”

6. AMSR2-AMSE-E X-CAL for L1 Ver.2
Scatter plots of Brightness temperature (AMSR2 Tb - AMSR-E (L1S) Tb) VS (AMSR-E (L1S) Tb)
From 1 Dec to 30 Sep. 2015, Asc.+ Dsc. orbits

7. GCOM-C (2017-) SGLI multispectral radiometer
Dec. 23, 2017 Launch,. -Mach 28, Initial Check-Out.
The first images of VNR-SWIR (1 Jan ) TIR (22 Jan 2018)
The first internal-lamp CAL (10 Jan 2018) moon CAL (31 Jan 2018)
Level-1 & geophysical data products (Level-2 and -3 data) will be released one-year after the launch.
An example of w RGB and Chlorophyll-a concentration
20 Mar. 2018

8. SGLI X-CAL VNR Ocean color X-cal by MODIS Rrs in Jan-Feb 2018
comparison
SGLI LTOA
Simulated LTOA
Global data
Aerosol estimation by SGLI VN07 and VN10
Aerosol
RT model
VN07
visible bands
A-MODIS Rrs
SGLI Rrs
Ocean BRDF by Morel’s model
Wavelength interpolation by Inherent Optical Properties (IOP) spectra
Sun-glint
O2A band
OC vcal
380
412
443
490
530
565
673
763
868
SGLI/sim
0.994
1.020
1.013
1.010
1.061
1.033
1.000
1.012 NA
(1.031 )

9. MetOp-A/IASI and SGLI TIR01, TIR02
SGLI X-CAL TIR
MetOp-A/IASI and SGLI TIR01, TIR02
Match-ups in Jan 2018
Aqua/AIRS and SGLI TIR01, TIR02
T01:Y = * X
N = 38758
SSE=
xvs=
std.error=
t-score=
T02:Y = * X
SSE=
xvs=
std.error=
t-score=
Match-ups in 31 Jan - 10 Feb 2018

10. ALOS F/O Missions (2014-)
Continuous observations successor “Daichi” (ALOS) from 2006 to 2011
Contribute to ensure the safety and security of citizens, i.e. disasters monitoring and management, land deformation monitoring, national developing management, foods and natural resources, environmental issues in global etc. as common issues.
Contribute to industrial development based on Earth observation data i.e. National Spatial Data infrastructure (NSDI) and new applications.
JFY2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
ALOS-2 (L-SAR)
May 24
Launch
Initial C/O
Initial Cal-Val
Product release
Mission operation (5 years)
Post-mission operation
ALOS-3
(Optical)
Development
Mission operation (7 years)
ALOS-4
(L-SAR)
Development 10

11. ALOS-2 (2014-) Radiometric Calibration
Absolute accuracy: > 0.8 dB
Relative accuracy (or stability): > 0.8 dB
ScanSAR
Comparison with PALSAR
Gamma zero (dB)
Incidence angle (degree)
Stripmap 10m
Calibration Factor
Software Ver (updated Mar. 28, 2017)
Data: year ～
Number of CR observations
FBD
10m
HBQ 6m
Full-pol
UBS 3m
CF = -83 dB

12. ALOS-2 (2014-) Geometric Calibration
Geometric accuracy
Beam U2 and FP6, May-Sep. 2017, Japan
Strong correlation with total electron content (TEC)
Orbit data
X [m]
Y [m]
bias SD
On-board orbit
(Less than 100 m）
0.02
4.07
-0.79
4.12
Fixed orbit data
(Less than 1 m)
-0.77
3.32
-0.85
4.72
Relationship between actual TEC
Time series in global average TEC
Range delay estimated by TEC (m)
N=180
ALOS
ALOS-2
Geometric error in slant range (m)

13. ALOS-3 (2020-) Wide-swath and high-resolution optical imager (WISH)
Items
Specifications
Orbit
Type
Sun-synchronous sub-recurrent
Altitude
669 km at the equator
Local Sun Time
10:30 am +/- 15 minutes at the descending node
Revisit
35 days (Sub-cycle 3 days)
Instruments
- Wide-swath and high-resolution optical imager (WISH, as a tentative)
- Dual-frequencies Infrared sensor (hosted payload)
Ground Sampling Distance (GSD)
- Panchromatic band of WISH (Pa): 0.8 m
- Multispectral band of WISH (Mu): 3.2 m (6 bands)
Quantization
11 bit / pixel
Swath width
70 km at nadir
Mission data rate
Approx. 4 Gbps (after onboard data compression: 1/4 (Pa) and 1/3 (Mu))
Mission data downlink
- Direct Transmission: Ka and X-band
- via. the Optical Data Relay Satellite
Mass
Approx. 3 tons at launch
Size
5 m×16 m×3.5 m　on orbit
Duty
10 mins / recurrent
Design life time
Over 7 years
Wide-swath and high-resolution optical imager (WISH)

14. WISH
Observation channel band allocations among optical satellites (visible to near-infrared).
Wavelength
400 nm
500 nm
600 nm
700 nm
800 nm
900 nm 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
ALOS-3
Blue
Green
Red
Near-IR
Coastal
Red Edge
ALOS
PRISM
AVNIR-2
Blue
Green
Red
Near-IR
WorldVie w
-2, 3
Blue
Green
Red
Near-IR1
Coastal
Yellow
Red Edge
Near-IR2

15. ALOS-4 (2020-)
Launch
JFY 2020, H3 launch vehicle
Orbit
Same orbit as ALOS-2
Sun-synchronous sub-recurrent orbit
Altitude: 628 km
Inclination angle: 97.9 degree
Local sun time at descending: 12:00 ± 15 min.
Revisit time: 14 day (15-3/14 rev/day)
Lifetime
7 years
Satellite Mass
approx. 3 tons
Downlink
3.6 Gbps/1.8 Gbps (Ka-band)
Data recorder
1 TByte
Mission Instruments
PALSAR-3 (Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar-3)
SPAISE3 (SPace based AIS Experiment 3)
Continuation and enhancement of the ALOS-2 missions and new applications:
Land deformation and subsidence monitoring
Disaster monitoring
Other continuous missions and new applications
Environmental monitoring, ocean, agriculture, natural resources
Inspection of increasing aging infrastructures

16. PALSAR-3
Expanding swath width without decreasing the resolution and image quality of PALSAR-2 by using the digital beam forming (DBF).
To guarantee the continuity of ALOS-2 applications, PALSAR-3 would inherit the major function and performance (NESZ, S/A, etc.) of PALSAR-2
PALSAR-3
PALSAR-2
Stripmap
(res. 3/6/10 m) km
30-70 km
ScanSAR
(res. 25m*)
700 km km
Spotlight
(res. 1 x 3 m)
35km×35km　
25km×25km　
Swath width km
Multiple receive beams are formed by digital calculation of multi-channel signals
*single look nominal

17. GOSAT-2 (2018-) TANSO-FTS-2 and CAI-2 TANSO-FTS-2 TANSO-CAI-2
Characteristics
Life
5 years
Orbit
Sun-Synchronous (628km)
Mass
About 2 t
Launch
2018
Observation
CO2, CH4 and CO
TANSO-CAI-2
Simultaneous CO (carbon monoxide) measurement
All target mode capability
Cloud-avoiding pointing with onboard camera
TANSO-FTS-2
TANSO-CAI-2 (radiometer)