ALOS

The Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) was launched in 2006 and is a high resolution satellite owned and operated by RESTEC. The satellite has three sensors i.e. two optical imagers (PRISM and AVNIR-2) and an L-band synthetic aperture radar (PALSAR - see the RADAR page for more information). The Advanced Visible and Near Infrared Radiometer Type 2 (AVNIR-2) has a cross track pointing function with off-nadir pointing capability from -44 to +44 degrees. The Panchromatic Remote Sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping (PRISM) is a black and white radiometer with a 2.5 m spatial resolution. PRISM has three independent optical systems for nadir, forward and backward looking capture allowing along track stereoscopy. Forward and backward looking telescopes are inclined from -24 to +24 degrees off nadir to produce a base to height ratio of 1.0. PRISM triplets are capable of producing DEMs with errors of about 5 m and with a 5 m grid spacing.

The ALOS satellite has now completed its mission after 5 years of service. During this time, ALOS mapped the Earth's surface, created three dimensional terrain models and acquired a vast number of images which are available to order through Geoimage.