ALOS SATELLITE SENSOR
NASDA's ALOS (Advanced Land Observation Satellite) was successfully launched on January 24, 2006 from the Tanegashima Space Center. The ALOS (renamed "Daichi") has three remote-sensing instruments: the Panchromatic Remote-sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping (PRISM) for digital elevation mapping (DEMs), the Advanced Visible and Near Infrared Radiometer type 2 (AVNIR-2) for precise land coverage observation, and the Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR) for day-and-night and all-weather land observation and enables precise land coverage observation and can collect enough data by itself for mapping on a scale of 25,000:1, without relying on points of reference on the ground. Some of its objectives are cartography, disaster monitoring, natural resource surveys and technology development.
Image Credit: JAXA
ALOS is one of the world's largest earth observation satellites whose function is to collect global and high resolution land observation data. ALOS data will be made available at conditions similar to those of ERS and Envisat missions, namely for scientific 'Category-1' use as well as commercial applications.
ALOS SATELLITE SENSOR CHARACTERISTICS
Resolution 2.5m panchromatic
10m multispectral
Launch Vehicle H-IIA Rocket
Launch Site Tanegashima Space Center
Satellite Weight Approximately 4,000kg (at Lift-off)
Power Approximately 7,000W (End of Life)
Designed Life 3 to 5 years
Orbit Sun Synchronous Sub-Recurrent Orbit
Recurrent Period: 46 days
Sub cycle: 2 days
Altitude: Approximately 692km (above the equator)
Inclination: Approximately 98.2 degrees
AVNIR-2
Band Wavelength Region (µm) Resolution (m)
1 0.42-0.50 (blue) 10
2 0.52-0.60 (green) 10
3 0.61-0.69 (red) 10
4 0.76-0.89 (near-IR) 10
PALSAR
Band Frequency (GHz) Resolution (m)
SAR-L 1.3 10 and 100
PRISM
Band Wavelength Region (µm) Resolution (m)
PAN 0.52-0.77 2.5
ALOS SATELLITE IMAGE GALLERY
For sample images, please visit our ALOS Satellite Image Gallery.
For more information on our products or services, please contact us.
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