ALOS-2 Mission

Objectives and Applications

Environmental monitoring, disaster monitoring, civil planning, agriculture and forestry, Earth resources, land surface and ocean monitoring.

Mission Summary

Full Name
Advanced Land Observing Satellite-2
aka DAICHI-2
Mission Status
Operational (extended)
Mission Agencies
Launch Date
24 May 2014
Mission Links
EOL Date
Dec 2025
EO Portal Info

Orbit Details

Orbit Type
Sun-synchronous
Orbit Period
97 minutes
Orbit Sense
Descending
Orbit Inclination
97.9 deg
Orbit Altitude
628 km
Orbit Longitude
Orbit LST
12:00
Repeat Cycle
14 days
NORAD Catalog #
International Designator

Mission Instruments

CIRC - Compact InfraRed Camera
PALSAR-2 - Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar-2
SPAISE2 (AIS) - Automated Identification System (SPAISE2)

Mission Measurements

CategoryParameterInstrument(s)
AtmosphereAtmospheric Winds PALSAR-2
Gravity and Magnetic FieldsGravity, Magnetic and Geodynamic measurements PALSAR-2
LandAlbedo and reflectance PALSAR-2
Landscape topography PALSAR-2
Soil moisture PALSAR-2
Vegetation PALSAR-2
Surface temperature (land) CIRC
Multi-purpose imagery (land) CIRC, PALSAR-2
OceanOcean surface winds PALSAR-2
Multi-purpose imagery (ocean) PALSAR-2
Snow & IceIce sheet topography PALSAR-2
Snow cover, edge and depth PALSAR-2
Sea ice cover, edge and thickness PALSAR-2

Featured Datasets

2018 ALOS Mosaics
Dec-2019
Global 25m resolutions PALSAR-2/PALSAR mosaic and forest/non-forest map are free and open dataset generated by applying JAXA's powerful processing and sophisticated analysis method/techniques to a lot of images obtained with Japanese L-band Synthetic Aperture Radars (PALSAR and PALSAR-2) on Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) and Advanced Land Observing Satellite-2 (ALOS-2). - Read more
Biomass CCI AGB 2017
Dec-2019
This dataset comprises estimates of forest above-ground biomass for the year 2017. The data has been produced as part of the European Space Agency's (ESA's) Climate Change Initiative (CCI) programme by the Biomass CCI team. The data was derived from input data from the PALSAR-2 instrument on the ALOS-2 satellite, and data from the Sentinel-1 satellite. The ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 dataset was obtained from the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in the form of a mosaic of images acquired in 2017. The Sentinel-1 dataset consisted of individual data takes by the 1A and 1B units during 2017 and provided by the European Space Agency. - Read more
ALOS Mosaics
Jul-2018
Global 25m resolutions PALSAR-2/PALSAR mosaic and forest/non-forest map are free and open dataset generated by applying JAXA's powerful processing and sophisticated analysis method/techniques to a lot of images obtained with Japanese L-band Synthetic Aperture Radars (PALSAR and PALSAR-2) on Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) and Advanced Land Observing Satellite-2 (ALOS-2). - Read more