ALOS/PALSAR
ALOS (which carries PALSAR) was injected into the sun-synchronous orbit, on which it revolves around the earth in every 100 minutes, or 14 times a day. ALOS returns to the original path (repeat cycle) in every 46 days, and the inter-orbit distance is approximately 59.7km on the equator.
The Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) has been developed to contribute to the fields of mapping, precise regional land coverage observation, disaster monitoring, and resource surveying.
PALSAR is the second spaceborne SAR that improved by Japanese, using L – band frequency. It is an upgraded Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) onboard the Japan Earth Resources Satellite -1 (JERS – 1) with improved function and performance. It is an active type microwave sensor which can carry our observations day and night regardless of weather conditions. It is expected to contribute greatly in areas such as resource exploration, environmental monitoring on earth and monitoring of natural disasters.
| Major Specifications of PALSAR | ||
|---|---|---|
| Observation Mode | High Resolution | SCAN SAR |
| Frequency | L-band (1.27GHz) | |
| Polarization | HH,VV,HH&HV,VV&VH | HH,VV |
| Special Resolution | 10m | 100m |
| Number of Looks | 2 | 8 |
| Swath Width | 70km | 250`350km |
| Off – Nadir Angle | 10 - 51 deg | |
| NEsigma0 | Approx. -23dB | |
PALSAR Data can be applied in spesific fields as below
- Land Area Basin Mapping: Geological and structural analysis of target areas, data acquisition of potential natural resource deposit areas.
- Coastal Area Basin Mapping : Detection of oil spill areas, monitoring of contamination accompanied by developmental activities.
- Monitoring of Environmental and Natural Disasters :Monitoring of disasters such as landslides, volcanic activities, floods and etc., and monitoring environmental impacts.
- Development of Application and Processing of Polarimetric SAR Data: Resource examination, application of geological structure analysis, research and development of mapping and/or classification methods of forests and biomass.