JAXA Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

	"IBUKI": Global efforts to protect the environment. Global warming has become a very serious issue for human beings. Scientists have suggested that, at the rate the Earth’s temperature is rising, an extreme form of global climate change could occur in a few centuries. In 1997, the Kyoto Protocol was adopted at the Third Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP3), making it mandatory for developed nations to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by six to eight per cent of their total emissions in 1990, and to meet this goal sometime between 2008 and 2012. Furthermore, the Global Climate Observation System (GCOS) has been proposed by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in order to strengthen observations of land, ocean, and space conducted by each country. Launch date: January 23, 2009

"IBUKI": Global efforts to protect the environment.

Global warming has become a very serious issue for human beings. Scientists have suggested that, at the rate the Earth’s temperature is rising, an extreme form of global climate change could occur in a few centuries.
In 1997, the Kyoto Protocol was adopted at the Third Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP3), making it mandatory for developed nations to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by six to eight per cent of their total emissions in 1990, and to meet this goal sometime between 2008 and 2012.
Furthermore, the Global Climate Observation System (GCOS) has been proposed by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in order to strengthen observations of land, ocean, and space conducted by each country.

Launch date: January 23, 2009

Project Topics

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Feb. 18, 2020 Updated

Massive bushfires in Australia seen from Space

Australia has naturally faced many droughts and bushfires, but conditions have been unusually severe this time. Sometime around September 2019, the bushfires continuously occurred around the state of New South Wales in southeast Australia. The fires had been spreading on a larger scale, and a number of massive fires had merged into a "Mega Fire" that was out of control. The fires are unlikely to end entirely even at the end of January 2020. Figure 1 (left) Standardized Precipitation In...

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Press Release

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Dec. 12, 2024 (11:00) [release]

Signing of the Implementing Arrangement to Continue Collaboration on Satellite Data Comparison of Trace Gases among JAXA, Ministry of the Environment, National Institute for Environmental Studies, and NASA
Mar. 19, 2019 (14:00) [release]

The WMO World Data Centre for Greenhouse Gases (WDCGG) begins provision of data from the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT)

Characteristics of Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite "IBUKI" (GOSAT)

Characteristics of greenhouse gas observation utilizing a satellite

The concentration of the greenhouse gases has been observed at observation sites on the ground and by aircrafts. However, there are only 348 sites (as of January 2013) and these sites place a disproportionate emphasis on a few areas. “IBUKI” is able to measure the concentration of greenhouse gases such as CO2 and CH4 over almost the entire surface of the earth at equal intervals every 3 days from the orbit traveling around the earth in approx. 100 minutes. This has made it possible to increase the observation points exponentially than before as well as obtaining the data over the region where we had no data until now. And it has been able to improve the estimation accuracy of the net flux of CO2 by up to 40% until now through the use of these data. The data obtained is anybody can use these data if they register as well as providing to governmental Institutions and scientists of various countries.

The concentration of the greenhouse gases has been observed at observation sites on the ground and by aircrafts. However, there are only 348 sites (as of January 2013) and these sites place a disproportionate emphasis on a few areas. “IBUKI” is able to measure the concentration of greenhouse gases such as CO2 and CH4 over almost the entire surface of the earth at equal intervals every 3 days from the orbit traveling around the earth in approx. 100 minutes. This has made it possible to increase the observation points exponentially than before as well as obtaining the data over the region where we had no data until now. And it has been able to improve the estimation accuracy of the net flux of CO2 by up to 40% until now through the use of these data. The data obtained is anybody can use these data if they register as well as providing to governmental Institutions and scientists of various countries.

Major Characteristics

International Designation Code	2009-002A
Launch Date	12:54, January 23, 2009 (JST)
Launch Vehicle	H-IIA Launch Vehicle No.15
Location	Tanegashima Space Center
Shape	2 box shape with wing-type solar array paddles 3.7 m x 1.8 m X 2.0 m (Depth) (Length between the tips of the paddles: 13.7 m)
Weight	Approx. 1,750kg
Orbiter	Sun-Synchronous Sub-Recurrent
Altitude	Approx. 667km
Inclination	Approx. 98 degrees
Period	Approx. 98 minutes