PALSAR PROJECT

	About PALSAR

In addition to its all-weather observation regardless of day and night, PALSAR has incorporated many highly advanced observation technologies, and is expected to contribute greatly in areas such as resource exploration, environmental monitoring on earth and monitoring of natural disasters. ERSDAC plans to apply PALSAR data in specific fields as follows:

	Land Area Basin Mapping
	Geological structural analysis of target areas Collect database of potential natural resource deposit areas
	Coastal Area Basin Mapping
	Extraction of oil exudating areaso Monitoring of contamination accompanied by developmental activities
	Monitoring of environment and natural disasters
	Monitoring of disasters such as landslide, volcanic activities, floods and others Environmental monitoring such as forests International cooperation
	Research and development for the processing and application of polarimetric SAR data
	Geological structure analysis on the stage of resource exploration Research and development of mapping and/or classification method of forests and biomass

	PALSAR Sensor

	PALSAR is an active microwave sensor, which is not affected by weather conditions and operable both daytime and nighttime. It is improved based on Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) onboard the first earth observation satellite (JERS-1).

	PALSAR Ground Data System

	PALSAR Ground Data Systems is the ground system for PALSAR operation, data processing, data archiving and distribution.

	Orbit

	ALOS (which carries PALSAR) was injected into the sun-synchronous orbit, on which it revolves around the earth in every 100 minutes, or 14 times a day. ALOS returns to the original path (repeat cycle) in every 46 days, and the inter-orbit distance is approximately 59.7km on the equator.
	Nominal Orbit Parameters

Type	Sun-Synchronous Subrecurrent
Local Time at DN	10:30 AM +/- 15min.
Altitude	691.65km (above equator)
Inclination	98.16 degree
Orbital Period	98.7 min.
Revolution per day	14+27/46 rev./day
Recurrent Period	46 days
Longitude Repeatability	+/-2.5km (above equator)
Reference Longitude of AN	0.243deg E at Path 671
Epoch Time	2006/02/22 17:40:04.000(UTC)

	About the scene definition, refer to " Scene Definition ".

	PALSAR World Coverage Map

	World Coverage Map of PALSAR observation
	PALSAR World Coverage Map

	PALSAR Systematic Observation Strategy

	Please refer to PALSAR Systematic Observation Strategy via the following URL (JAXA website). However, these are observation plans. No warranty is given as to the observation.
	PALSAR Systematic Observation Strategy (JAXA Website)