JAXA Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

Advanced Land Observing Satellite "Daichi" (ALOS):
Start of Operations Phase and Data Provision to the Public

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) completed the initial functional verification phase and initial calibration and verification phase of the Advanced Land Observing Satellite "Daichi" (ALOS) and will move on to the operations phase tomorrow. The "Daichi" was launched on January 24, 2006, (Japan Standard Time, JST) from the Tanegashima Space Center.

Along with the start of the mission operation, observation data (called "ALOS data") from the "Daichi" will become available to the public. In Japan, you can receive data from two Japanese organizations, the Remote Sensing Technology Center of Japan (RESTEC) and the Earth Remote Sensing Data Analysis Center (ERSDAC) *1, and some overseas local organizations designated by ALOS node agencies*2 as they are ready to provide data. Some fees are required to receive the data.

JAXA also started providing data to the Sentinel Asia, which JAXA and other related organizations are currently establishing as a disaster management support system in the Asia-Pacific region.

*1 The ERSDAC provides only PALSAR data.

*2 The system to process and provide data in each region by dividing the world into four areas.

Overseas Data Nodes and contact point

- European Space Agency (ESA) for Europe and African regions

E-mail: eohelp@esa.int

- Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF), University of Alaska Fairbanks for North and South America regions

E-mail: uso@aadn.alaska.edu

- Geoscience Australia (GA) for Oceania regions

E-mail: acres@ga.gov.au

- Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA)for Asia regions (exclusively for Thailand)

E-mail: niramon@gistda.or.th

[Contact point for data distribution in Japan]

- Remote Sensing Technology Center of Japan (RESTEC)

(to users in Japan and Asia)
Website: http://www.restec.or.jp/top_e.html
e-mail: data@restec.or.jp

- Earth Remote Sensing Data Analysis Center (ERSDAC)

(to all users in the world)
Website: http://www.ersdac.or.jp/eng/index.E.html
e-mail: palsar@ersdac.or.jp

Outline of Sentinel Asia

Sentinel Asia is an activity that shares disaster-related information such as images acquired by earth observation satellites through the Internet in order to contribute to disaster management in the Asia-Pacific region. It is jointly promoted by space organizations who are members of the Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum (APRSAF) and disaster related organizations in Asia such as the Asian Disaster Reduction Center, as well as Keio University, which provides a geographic information system on the Internet called Web-GIS.
Sentinel Asia's website is: http://dmss.tksc.jaxa.jp/sentinel/