Advanced Visible and Near Infrared Radiometer type 2 (AVNIR-2)
AVNIR-2 is a visible and near infrared radiometer onboard ALOS. AVNIR-2 is a successor to AVNIR that was onboard the ADvanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS), which was launched in August 1996. Its instantaneous field-of-view is the main improvement over AVNIR. AVNIR-2 also provides 10m spatial resolution images, an improvement over the 16m resolution of AVNIR in the multi-spectral region. Improved CCD detectors (AVNIR has 5,000 pixels per CCD; AVNIR-2 7,000 pixels per CCD) and electronics enable this higher resolution. The pointing angle of AVNIR-2 is +44° and -44°. AVNIR-2 coverage for the SMAPEx study area is summarised below. AVNIR-2 data can be downloaded from JAXA.
Instrument |
Advanced Visible and Near Infrared Radiometer type 2 |
Spacecraft |
Advance Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) |
Launch date |
24th, Jan. 2006 |
Design life |
3 - 5 years |
Orbit |
Sun-Synchronous Sub-Recurrent, at an angle of 98.16°, at altitude of 691.65km (at equator). |
Spacecraft operations control centre |
JAXA and JAROS |
Channel and wavelength (micrometers) |
4 VNIR bands (0.42 - 0.89) |
Incidence angle(°) |
±44 |
Swath (km) |
70 |
Spatial resolution (m) |
10 at nadir |
Temporal resolution |
Repeat Cycle: 46 days, Sub Cycle: 2 days |
The AVNIR-2 overpass time for the SMAPEx study area is provided in the table below, determined from a Fortran program based on the NORAD data. Date and time are in UTC.
●=full AVNIR-2 coverage of airborne box; ○=partial AVNIR-2 coverage
●=concurrent; ●=non concurrent
No coverage was found during 5th-10th July, 2010.