Japanese perspective on GIIPSY

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Japanese perspective on GIIPSY Jinro Ukita (Chiba
University)
ALOS (Advanced Land Observation System) provides
timely contribution from Japan to GIIPSY,
launched on Jan 24 2006 for 3-5 yr mission and
just became operational with three sensors PRISM
Panchromatic radiometer (0.52-0.77mm) with 2.5
m resolution and 75km/35km (nadir/triplet only)
swath for digital surface mapping AVNIR-2
Advanced visible and near IR radiometers in 4
bands (0.42-0.89mm) with 10m resolution and 75km
swath PALSAR L-band SAR with 7-44m, 14-88m and
100m resolution (single, dual, polarimatric)
and 40-70km and 250-350km (single and ScanSAR)
swath in 4 sensor modes
2006 AGU Fall Meeting
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Summary table for PALSAR default modes
Mode Name Pol Off-nadir angle Pass Coverage Period Obs frequency
Fine beam Single HH 34.3 Ascend. Global Dec-Feb 1-2 per yr
Fine beam Dual HH, HV 34.3 Ascend. Global May-Sep 1-4 per yr
Fine beam Polari- matric 21.5 Ascend. Regional Mar-May 2 per 2yr
ScanSAR Single HH 20.1-36.5 Descend. Global Thru yr 1 per yr
ScanSAR Single HH 20.1-36.5 Descend. Regional Thru yr 8 per yr
Observational schedule with specific dates during
the IPY period is available at www.eorc.jaxa.jp/AL
OS/index.htm
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Cycle Starting date Polarization
8 5-Dec-06 HH
9 20-Jan-07 HH
10 7-Mar-07 Polarimetry
11 22-Apr-07 Polarimatric
12 7-Jun-07 Dual
13 23-Jul-07 Dual
14 7-Sep-07 Dual
15 23-Oct-07 Unassigned
16 8-Dec-07 HH
17 23-Jan-08 HH
18 9-Mar-08 HH
19 24-Apr-08 Dual
20 9-Jun-08 Dual
21 25-Jul-08 Dual
22 9-Sep-08 Dual
23 25-Oct-08 Unassigned
24 10-Dec-08 HH
25 25-Jan-09 HH
26 12-Mar-09 Polarimatric
27 27-Apr-09 Polarimatric

• Acquisition plan for ascending during
  IPY(v10/2006)
• Light Greenland
• Dark Antarctic
• Red Both

Cycle 8 (Dec 5 2006 Jan 2007)
Greenland?
Based on JAXAs website at www.eorc.jaxa.jp/ALOS/i
ndex.htm
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Current PIs on ALOS mission listed under the
cryosphere (can be contact points) M.
Drinkwater (ESTEC) Thin winter and summer ice in
the Antarctic and Arctic D. Flett (CIS) Regional
ice monitoring R. Forster (U of Utah) Arctic
seasonal snow melt as detected R. Kwok (JPL) Sea
ice A. Luckman (U of Wales) Svalbard glaciers R.
Massom (Antarctic CRC) Fast-ice and polynyas in
East Antarctica K. McDonald (JPL) Boreal
landscape freeze/thaw dynamics E. Rignot (JPL)
Ice sheet flow in Antarctica and Greenland J. Shi
(UCSB) Snow properties K.Shum (Ohio)
Filchner-Ronne ice shelf L. C. Smith UCLA)
Arctic river systems C. Tsatsoulis (Kansas) Fram
Strait sea ice N. Young (Antarctic CRC) Ice
shelves and glaciers in East Antarctica M. Aniya
(U of Tsukuba) Patagonia icefield Cho (Tokai U)
Okhotsk Sea H. Wakabayashi (Nihon U) Okhotsk sea
ice
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• Possible issues to discuss and action items
• Ways to make requests and feedback from the
  GIIPSY community to JAXA established channel
  through the current PIs?
• Maybe speak up for un-assigned mode
• Boundary regions, e.g. 60 deg N
• Arctic Ocean
• IPY Legacy (e.g. Greenland during Cycle 26-7)
• Current PIs and future AOs (2nd AO with Feb 15
  deadline but only for ALOS Data Node Asia/Russia)
• Lack and absence of direct involvement by
  Japanese scientists
• The IPY provides an opportunity to build remote
  sensing cryosphere obs community in Japan for the
  benefits of GIIPSY and beyond so what to do?