ALOS-1 - Earth Online

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Easy visualisation of Earth observation data with new HEDAVI tool modes

The Discover mode in HEDAVI showcases the usefulness of Earth Observation (EO) data in a variety of applications through a list of case-studies—so-called “stories”. The first new feature allows users to share links to the stories in HEDAVI. The second new feature allows them to export any image of a case-study from the Discover mode to the Explorer mode.

HEDAVI Discover: a step-by-step guide

The Heritage Data Visualisation tool (HEDAVI) is a platform developed by the French Science Consulting for Earth Observation group, VisioTerra, which allows users to freely access over 40 years of ESA Earth Observation Heritage data, Third Party Missions and some Copernicus data.

Go-to guide to Third Party Mission data offering

ESA’s latest Third Party Missions Data Access Guide has been published, providing technical details and information on available data collections for all current or past Third Party Missions.

ALOS PRISM L1C European Coverage Cloud Free data collection now available for users

As part of Earthnet’s Third Party Missions Programme framework, ESA is pleased to announce that the ALOS PRISM L1C European Coverage Cloud Free data collection is now available for research purposes.

Long-term data: Summarising ESA’s Heritage missions

ESA’s Heritage Space Programme preserves data from non-operational missions. Learn more about the Heritage missions in this video.

About ALOS-1

The Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS-1) was a Japanese Earth-imaging satellite from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) that launched on 24 January 2006 and completed its operational phase on 12 May 2011 after failing due to a power anomaly.

ALOS-1 is part of ESA's Third Party Missions Programme, in which ESA has an agreement with JAXA to distribute data products from the mission.

ALOS-1 Objectives

The ALOS-1 mission objectives were:

Providing its user community with data of sufficient resolution to be able to generate 1:25,000 scale maps
Developing Digital Elevation Models and related geographic data products
Performing regional observation to aid sustainable development goals
Surveying natural resources
Develop sensor and satellite technology for future Earth-observation missions
Disaster monitoring around the world.

ALOS-1 Instruments

PRISM instrument — The **Panchromatic Remote-sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping (PRISM)** was a panchromatic radiometer with 2.5 m spatial resolution at nadir. Its extracted data was designed to provide highly accurate digital surface models (DSM).
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PALSAR instrument — The **Phased Array L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR)** was a successor sensor to the SAR on-board JERS-1 with more advanced functions such as higher spatial resolution and ScanSAR mode.

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The **Advanced Visible and Near-Infrared Radiometer-2 (AVNIR-2)** was a four band (visible and near-infrared) radiometer with a resolution of 10 m, designed for observing land and coastal zones.

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The ALOS-1 instruments were capable of observing the entire surface of the Earth:

Any place within two days
Around the equator: about 60% of the area within one day
At latitudes of 35°: about 70% of the area within one day
At latitudes above 55°: any place every day (provided there is no cloud cover for the optical instruments)

Night-time observation modes: PALSAR (Note: AVNIR-2 and PALSAR are able to operate simultaneously).

PALSAR calibration is provided with PARC (Polarimetric Active Radar Calibrator) as well as by other means.

Non-scientific measuring instruments:

AOCS (Attitude Orbit and Control System)
RRA (RetroReflector Array)
SST (Star Tracker)

ALOS-1 Data

DATA COLLECTIONS

Through the Online Dissemination server, ESA offers registered users access to the following data collections:

ALOS-1 INSTRUMENTS

ALOS-1 DATA