Andrew Yee
May 18th 06, 05:19 PM
ESA News
http://www.esa.int
17 May 2006
ALOS satellite snaps Europe
ESA has for the first time acquired and processed images sent by ALOS --
Japan's four-tonne satellite dedicated to land-based Earth Observation --
including views of Italy, The Netherlands and Norway.
ESA is supporting ALOS as a 'Third Party Mission', which means the agency is
utilising its multi-mission ground segment of existing European facilities
and expertise to acquire, process and distribute data from the satellite.
"We have received high-quality data from ALOS, and our team has worked
extremely hard and done a great job acquiring and processing the images. We
are very excited about the future data we will receive from ALOS and think
they will be very beneficial to users," ESAs Third Party Mission Manager
Bianca Hoersch said.
ALOS captured the image of Naples, Italy, with its Advanced Visible and Near
Infrared Radiometer type-2 (AVNIR-2), which is designed to chart land cover
and vegetation in visible and near infrared spectral bands.
The images of The Netherlands and Norway were captured by the Phased Array
type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR) instrument -- a microwave
radar instrument that can acquire observations during both day and night and
through any weather conditions.
The images were acquired on 28 April and 1 May 2006 at Kiruna Esrange and
were processed at ESRIN, ESAs Earth observation centre in Frascati, Italy.
In addition to these instruments, ALOS also carries the Panchromatic
Remote-sensing Instrument of Stereo Mapping (PRISM), which can observe
selected areas in three dimensions, down to a high 2.5-metre spatial
resolution.
ALOS -- delivered into a 700-kilometre polar orbit on 24 January 2006 from
the Tanegashima Space Centre in Japan -- is now in its nine-month
Commissioning Phase.
Based on a cooperative agreement with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
(JAXA), ESA is hosting the ALOS European Data Node (ADEN), delivering
near-real time and offline data to scientific and operational users across
Europe and Africa. In order to deliver this, ESA has set up a Commissioning
Phase Ground segment for ALOS with Kiruna Esrange, operated by the Swedish
Space Corporation (SSC) as the downlink station.
Data from Kiruna is transferred electronically to ESRIN and is processed in
a shared approach between ESRIN and the Neustrelitz Station, located in
Germany, operated by the German Space Agency (DLR).
ESA will continue to test the ground segment chain from acquisition to
archiving, processing and distribution with more regular downlinks scheduled
to begin in late May. In addition to receiving data directly from ALOS, ESA
will start to receive data offline from JAXA via media at the same time. The
data volume is estimated to be around 200-250 Gigabytes daily, covering the
ADEN zone.
When ALOS enters its Operational Phase, ESA will set up a larger ground
segment with various acquisition stations and archives to provide optimal
coverage over the ADEN zone. Operational ALOS data distribution from ESA
will begin in November 2006.
An ESA Announcement of Opportunity for scientific use of ALOS data has
already received 150 proposals, with 139 coming from ESA Member States,
requesting a total of 26 000 ALOS products along with 14 000 products from
ESAs ERS-2 and Envisat satellites as well as other Third Party Missions.
"Regular Category-1 data access -- requested by scientists for further
research projects -- will be open at reproduction cost to the scientific and
pre-operational user community for proposal submission from July," Hoersch
said.
Operational and commercial users will be able to receive ALOS data via
commercial distribution schemes. ALOS data will also be available for Global
Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES), the joint initiative by ESA
and the European Union to develop an independent environmental monitoring
capability for Europe.
Related articles
* Earth from Space: ALOS sends its first image
http://www.esa.int/esaEO/SEMHS2MVGJE_index_0.html
* Japan's ALOS in orbit: ESA will deliver its data to European researchers
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM0SXMZCIE_index_0.html
Related Missions
* Third Party Missions overview
http://www.esa.int/esaEO/SEMP5R2VQUD_index_0_m.html
In depth
* Observing the Earth
http://www.esa.int/esaEO/index.html
* Third Party Missions: ALOS
http://earth.esa.int/missions/thirdpartymission/ALOS.html
* ALOS Data European Node (ADEN)
http://eopi.esa.int/Aden
* EO Principal Investigator Portal
http://eopi.esa.int/
* GMES
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMTE4XO4HD_Italy_0.html
* ESRIN
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/ESRIN_SITE/index.html
Related links
* ALOS mission website
http://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/ALOS/index.htm
* ALOS launch website
http://h2a.jaxa.jp/index_e.html
* JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency)
http://www.jaxa.jp/index_e.html
[NOTE: Images supporting this release are available at
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMOK69ATME_index_1.html ]
http://www.esa.int
17 May 2006
ALOS satellite snaps Europe
ESA has for the first time acquired and processed images sent by ALOS --
Japan's four-tonne satellite dedicated to land-based Earth Observation --
including views of Italy, The Netherlands and Norway.
ESA is supporting ALOS as a 'Third Party Mission', which means the agency is
utilising its multi-mission ground segment of existing European facilities
and expertise to acquire, process and distribute data from the satellite.
"We have received high-quality data from ALOS, and our team has worked
extremely hard and done a great job acquiring and processing the images. We
are very excited about the future data we will receive from ALOS and think
they will be very beneficial to users," ESAs Third Party Mission Manager
Bianca Hoersch said.
ALOS captured the image of Naples, Italy, with its Advanced Visible and Near
Infrared Radiometer type-2 (AVNIR-2), which is designed to chart land cover
and vegetation in visible and near infrared spectral bands.
The images of The Netherlands and Norway were captured by the Phased Array
type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR) instrument -- a microwave
radar instrument that can acquire observations during both day and night and
through any weather conditions.
The images were acquired on 28 April and 1 May 2006 at Kiruna Esrange and
were processed at ESRIN, ESAs Earth observation centre in Frascati, Italy.
In addition to these instruments, ALOS also carries the Panchromatic
Remote-sensing Instrument of Stereo Mapping (PRISM), which can observe
selected areas in three dimensions, down to a high 2.5-metre spatial
resolution.
ALOS -- delivered into a 700-kilometre polar orbit on 24 January 2006 from
the Tanegashima Space Centre in Japan -- is now in its nine-month
Commissioning Phase.
Based on a cooperative agreement with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
(JAXA), ESA is hosting the ALOS European Data Node (ADEN), delivering
near-real time and offline data to scientific and operational users across
Europe and Africa. In order to deliver this, ESA has set up a Commissioning
Phase Ground segment for ALOS with Kiruna Esrange, operated by the Swedish
Space Corporation (SSC) as the downlink station.
Data from Kiruna is transferred electronically to ESRIN and is processed in
a shared approach between ESRIN and the Neustrelitz Station, located in
Germany, operated by the German Space Agency (DLR).
ESA will continue to test the ground segment chain from acquisition to
archiving, processing and distribution with more regular downlinks scheduled
to begin in late May. In addition to receiving data directly from ALOS, ESA
will start to receive data offline from JAXA via media at the same time. The
data volume is estimated to be around 200-250 Gigabytes daily, covering the
ADEN zone.
When ALOS enters its Operational Phase, ESA will set up a larger ground
segment with various acquisition stations and archives to provide optimal
coverage over the ADEN zone. Operational ALOS data distribution from ESA
will begin in November 2006.
An ESA Announcement of Opportunity for scientific use of ALOS data has
already received 150 proposals, with 139 coming from ESA Member States,
requesting a total of 26 000 ALOS products along with 14 000 products from
ESAs ERS-2 and Envisat satellites as well as other Third Party Missions.
"Regular Category-1 data access -- requested by scientists for further
research projects -- will be open at reproduction cost to the scientific and
pre-operational user community for proposal submission from July," Hoersch
said.
Operational and commercial users will be able to receive ALOS data via
commercial distribution schemes. ALOS data will also be available for Global
Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES), the joint initiative by ESA
and the European Union to develop an independent environmental monitoring
capability for Europe.
Related articles
* Earth from Space: ALOS sends its first image
http://www.esa.int/esaEO/SEMHS2MVGJE_index_0.html
* Japan's ALOS in orbit: ESA will deliver its data to European researchers
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM0SXMZCIE_index_0.html
Related Missions
* Third Party Missions overview
http://www.esa.int/esaEO/SEMP5R2VQUD_index_0_m.html
In depth
* Observing the Earth
http://www.esa.int/esaEO/index.html
* Third Party Missions: ALOS
http://earth.esa.int/missions/thirdpartymission/ALOS.html
* ALOS Data European Node (ADEN)
http://eopi.esa.int/Aden
* EO Principal Investigator Portal
http://eopi.esa.int/
* GMES
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMTE4XO4HD_Italy_0.html
* ESRIN
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/ESRIN_SITE/index.html
Related links
* ALOS mission website
http://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/ALOS/index.htm
* ALOS launch website
http://h2a.jaxa.jp/index_e.html
* JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency)
http://www.jaxa.jp/index_e.html
[NOTE: Images supporting this release are available at
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMOK69ATME_index_1.html ]