ALOS 2 (Daichi 2)

Spacecraft nº:

Japanese spacecraft nº: 194

Launch data: Designation  39766 / 14029A Launch date  24 May 2014 - 03:05 UT Launch site  Tanegashima, YLP-1 Launch vehicle  H-2A-202 Mission  Radar Earth observation Earth orbit: Perigee / Apogee  637 x 639 km Eccentricity   Inclination   97.9° Period  97.3 min

Artist′s rendition of the ALOS-2 spacecraft in orbit (image credit: JAXA)

Spacecraft data:

Description:

• ALOS 2 is designed to last at least five years and it follows Japan's previous land mapping mission, which operated from 2006 to 2011 before suffering a catastrophic power failure. Japan lost the ALOS mission just six weeks after it was tasked with observing damage in the aftermath of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that ravaged the Japanese coastline north of Tokyo, killing thousands and triggering the crisis Fukushima nuclear power plant. The first ALOS satellite carried an optical stereo camera system, a radiometer and an L-band radar, combining the sensors aboard a single spacecraft. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency decided to launch the follow-up ALOS 2 satellite with an enhanced version of the L-band radar carried aboard the first mission. Another spacecraft, named ALOS 3, is set for launch in 2016 with a high-resolution optical imaging payload.
• The state-of-the-art L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) aboard ALOS-2, which is an active microwave radar using the 1.2 GHz frequency range, which, in responding to society's needs, has enhanced performance compared to DAICHI/PALSAR. The SAR is capable of observing day and night, and in all weather conditions.
• ALOS-2 has a spotlight mode (1 to 3 m) and a high resolution mode (3 to 10 m), whilst PALSAR has a 10 m resolution. It allows comprehensive monitoring of disasters by providing users with more detailed data than DAICHI/PALSAR. The observation frequency of ALOS-2 is improved by greatly expanding the observable range of the satellite up to about 3 times, through an improvement in observable areas (from 870 km to 2,320 km), as well as giving ALOS-2 a right-and-left looking function, currently not available on DAICHI/PALSAR.

Mission details:

• Japan has launched the Advanced Land Observing Satellite 2, nicknamed Daichi-2, into a 629 x 635 km x 97.9 deg, noon/midnight sun-synchronous orbit. The 2120 kg Daichi-2 carries the PALSAR-2 radar imager.
  The second stage of the H-II rocket also deployed four small Japanese satellites: SOCRATES for the Japanese comms research lab NICT, with a laser communications experiment; UNIFORM-1 for Wakayama University, carrying a 10-12 micron IR microbolometer array for wildfire monitoring; RISING-2 (or Raijin-2?), a Tohoku University mission for studies of lightning with visible and mid-IR imagers and a VLF receiver; and SPROUT, a 7 kg Nihon University experiment to deploy a 1.5m inflatable triangular membrane.

External links:

• EOportal.org Satellite description
• Satellite tracking (n2ya.com): Real time satellite tracking