Overview of Japan's Advanced Land Observing Satellite-2 mission

ABSTRACT The post-ALOS program has been defined in the basic plan for Japan’s space policy which was established by the Strategic Headquarters for Space Policy on June 2 nd , 2009. It emphasizes the continuity of the ALOS mission: not only disaster monitoring but also land infrastructure management, earth environment and resource monitoring and so on. JAXA had completed the System Definition Review of the ALOS-2 satellite and ground system in February, 2009 and started phase B design of the new L-band SAR, satellite and ground system with the target launch in 2013. This paper introduces the mission and major specification of ALOS-2 satellite and L-band SAR. Keywords: ALOS, ALOS-2, L-band SAR, satellite 1. INTRODUCTION The Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) “Daichi” has been operated for more than three years since January 2006 to accomplish the missions including cartography, regional observation, disaster monitoring, and resource survey. Many users are expecting the ALOS follow-on program. JAXA had studied the conceptual design on the constellation of SAR satellites and optical satellites to satisfy the user requirement for disaster monitoring as the “Disaster Monitoring Satellite System”. Attaching importance to the continuity of ALOS data utilization, the post-ALOS program has been defined to consist of ALOS-2 (SAR satellite) and ALOS-3 (optical satellite) in accordance with the basic plan for Japan’s space policy. This paper introduces the mission and system overview of ALOS-2.