Phased Array L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR)
Source: http://spacespin.org Source: http://www.eorc.jaxa.jp
The PALSAR is an active microwave sensor aboard the Advance Land Observing Satellite (ALOS). The sensor operates at L-band with HH and VV polarisation (HV and VH polarisations are optional). The sensor is beam steerable in elevation and the ScanSAR mode allows obtaining a wider swath than conventional SARs. ALOS was launched in 2004 into a sun-synchronous orbit at the altitude of 700km, providing a spatial resolution of 20m for the fine resolution mode (swath width of 70km) and 100m for the ScanSAR mode (swath width of 360km). The repeat cycle is 46 days and the local time at descending node is about 10:30am. PALSAR data can be downloaded from ERSDAC. ALOS operations have been terminated on May 12 after a communication shutdown due to a power generation anomaly.
Source: http://www.alos-restec.jp
Mission
PALSAR
Sensor
Phased Array L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR)
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
Centre frequency (GHz)
1.27 (L-band)
Mode Fine ScanSAR Polarimetric (Experimental mode) Band width (MHz)
28
14 14, 28 14 Polarisation
HH or VV
HH+HV or VV+VH HH or VV HH+HV+VV+VH Incidence angle(°)
8-60
8-60 18-43 8-30 Swath (km)
40-70
40-70 250-350 20-65 Spatial resolution (m)
7-44
14-88 100 (multi-look) 24-89 Bit length 5 bits 5 bits 5 bits 3 or 5 bits Radiometric accuracy
scene: 1dB or orbit: 1.5dB
Temporal resolution
Repeat Cycle: 46 days, Sub Cycle: 2 days
PALSAR overpass time
The PALSAR overpass time for the SMAPEx-1 is provided in the table below, determined from the ESOV software based on the OSF file of 18th, Dec. 2009. Date is in UTC.
●=full PALSAR coverage of airborne box; ○=partial PALSAR coverage
●=concurrent; ●=non concurrent
Date (UTC)
Mode
Incidence angle Polarisation Flight Type
05/07/2010 FBD 34.3 deg Dual ●Transect
