Advanced Land Observation Satellite

The Advanced Land Observing Satellite, in short: ALOS, renamed after the start in Daichi is a Japanese earth observation satellite, which orbits the Earth in a sun-synchronous orbit. It provides data for cartography, environmental protection and disaster management. With ALOS Japan participates in the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters.

For unknown cause fell 22 April 2011 from the power supply and the satellite was no longer responsive. The start of the follow-on mission ALOS -2 is scheduled for 24 May 2014.

Data

The power is 7 kW ( EOL), so that a lifetime of 3 to 5 years planned. The satellite is flying in a cycle of 3 days, the same places. When position control accuracy with Ground Control Points 2.0 × 10-4 ° indicated that orbital position accuracy should be offline 1 m. The data obtained by the optics is transferred to an on-board data store 90 Gb, is used a solid state data recorder. When transmitting via Data Relay Satellite Technology a data transfer rate of 240 Mbps is achieved; the remote makes half.

Devices

The satellite has three instruments on board:

  • PRISM for stereo recording - Panchromatic Remote -sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping Spectral band from 0.52 to 0.77 microns
  • Number of lenses: 3 ( Nadir / Forward / Backward )
  • Width-height ratio: 1.0 ( Forward / Backward )
  • MTF: > 0.2
  • Spatial resolution on the ground: 2.5 m
  • Swath width: 35 km ( Triplet mode), 70 km (nadir only, Wide swath mode)
  • Pointing angle -1.5 deg ( Triplet mode)
  • The radiometer AVNIR -2 - Advanced Visible and Near Infrared Radiometer type 2 Spectral band ( microns ) Volume 1: 0:42 to 0:50, Volume 2: 0.52 - 0.60, Band3: 0.61 - 0.69, Band4: 0.76 - 0.89
  • MTF: > 0.2
  • Resolution: 10 m (at nadir pointing )
  • Swath width: 70 km ( at nadir pointing )
  • Pointing angle: -44 deg.
  • The L-band Radar PALSAR - Phased Array L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar in high resolution mode: Frequency: L -band (1.27 GHz, corresponding to 23.6 cm wavelength)
  • Polarization HH, VV, HH & HV, VV & VH
  • Resolution: 10 m
  • Swath width: 70 km
  • Off- nadir angle: 10-51 °
  • Frequency: L -band (1.27 GHz)
  • Polarization: HH, VV
  • Resolution: 100 m
  • Swath width: 250-350 km
  • Off- nadir angle: 10-51 °
JAXA International Designator Orbital inclination Electromagnetic spectrum Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar
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