ALOS Project

class: center, middle, inverse, title-slide

.title[
# ALOS Project
]
.subtitle[
## CASA0023 Remote Sensing Cities and Environment<br /> Week 2 Presentation
]
.author[
### Soki Kimura
]
.institute[
### UCL Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis
]
.date[
### 2023/3/21
]

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## ALOS Project

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Earth observation satellites from Japan

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ALOS (Advanced Land Observing Satellite) Project is a series of Japanese earth observation satellites. The latest one was *supposed to be* the ALOS-3 satellite.

There have been 2 satellites that have been launched in the past - ALOS 1 and 2.

ALOS 3 has failed to launch, and ALOS 4 is under development.

These satellites are a combination of SAR satellites and optical imagery observation satellites - they make up the main satellites for Japanese earth observation.

]

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## The Satellites

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#### ALOS (Daichi)

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#### ALOS-2 (Daichi-2)

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- Operation: 2006 - 2011
- Sensors: 
  - PALSAR (Active Radar)
  - PRISM (Panchromatic) 
  - AVENIR (RGB + NIR)
- Significance lies in the fact that there were multiple sensors in one satellite, allowing for detailed observation

]

.pull-right[

- Operation: 2014 - present
- Sensor: PALSAR-2 (Active Radar)
- Launched as successor to the PALSAR radar in ALOS

> The name *'Daichi'*: 「**大地**」literally means **land**

Sources: [JAXA (2023a)](#bib-jaxa2023a), [JAXA (2024)](#bib-jaxa2024), [NASA Earth Science Data Systems (2020)](#bib-nasaearthsciencedatasystems2020)

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## Future projects

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#### ALOS-3 (failed)

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#### ALOS-4

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- Launched in 2023, but failed
- Sensor: 6 bands (including RGB, NIR)
- Had a spatial resolution of 0.7 m
- Designed as a successor to the AVENIR in ALOS; loss of this satellite cast a shadow in the future earth observation

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- Planned launch in 2024
- Sensor: Radar
- Planned as successor to ALOS-2
- Cannot be a substitute for the loss of ALOS-3, due to the difference in bands.

Source: ([JAXA, 2023b](#bib-jaxa2023); [JAXA, 2024](#bib-jaxa2024))

]

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## Applications: Disaster observation

#### Aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake (2011)

Observing of disasters is one of the focus areas by ALOS. ([JAXA, 2011b](#bib-jaxa2011); [JAXA, 2011a](#bib-jaxa2011a))

The image of the coastline near Natori, Miyagi, Japan. Image taken 2 weeks after (left), 3 days after (centre), and before the earthquake and tsunami (right). We can see the tsunami-impacted ares in the centre, and the flooding ceased after 2 weeks.

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## Applications: Vegetation analysis

Deforestation occuring worldwide has been observed, using the Radar image from Daichi-2.
[Whittle, Quegan, Uryu et al. (2012)](#bib-whittle2012) explored the deforestation of Sumatra, Indonesia using this dataset - an automatic deforestation detection was made possible, enabling them for simultaneous detection.

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## Applications: Notes

The 2 research papers I have found using the ALOS data are both in Asia.

Being the Japanese alternative to the NASA and ESA ovservations, it may be interesting to figure out whether there is a regional preference toward using these observations compared to the alternatives.

There seems to be a lot of research comparing the observations of the multiple suites of satellites.

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## Reflection

The ALOS projects have contributed to the growth of Japanese earth observation, with observation available for various wavelengths.

Disaster observation is of importance to the Japanese community as a whole. Global observation enables analysis for disasters worldwide, recent example being the earthquake in Turkey ([JAXA, 2023b](#bib-jaxa2023)).

The failure of ALOS-3 may impact the earth observation of Japan, especially with the importance lying in disaster management that happens every once in a while.

> Japan has this past of losing a weather forcast satellite in 2003, forcing them to lend satellite data from the US for a few years. Hope the next ones will succeed!

### To Do: Use the data from ALOS!

I personally feel proud my country is using their own satellites for earth observation. I hope to dig further in to this dataset, and see what we can do!

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## References

<a name=bib-jaxa2011></a>[JAXA](#cite-jaxa2011) (2011b). _Emergency Observation of Magnitude-9.0
Earthquake off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku-Kanto District in Japan in 2011 by AVNIR-2 Onboard
"Daichi" (ALOS)_. https://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/ALOS/en/img\_ up/dis\_ opt\_ tohokueq\_110314.htm.

<a name=bib-jaxa2011a></a>[JAXA](#cite-jaxa2011a) (2011a).
_陸域観測技術衛星「だいち」(ALOS)による東日本大震災の緊急観測結果(21)_.
https://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/ALOS/img\_ up/jdis\_ opt\_ tohokueq\_110328.htm.

<a name=bib-jaxa2023></a>[JAXA](#cite-jaxa2023) (2023b). _ALOS-2 Observations of Earthquakes in
Southeastern Turkey in 2023 (Updated on March 2) - JAXA Earth-graphy / Space Technology
Directorate I_. https://earth.jaxa.jp/en/earthview/2023/02/14/7381/index.html.

<a name=bib-jaxa2023a></a>[JAXA](#cite-jaxa2023a) (2023a). _JAXA Satellite Navigator / Space
Technology Directorate I_. https://www.satnavi.jaxa.jp/en/.

<a name=bib-jaxa2024></a>[JAXA](#cite-jaxa2024) (2024). _Dataset \textbar ALOS@EORC_.
https://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/ALOS/en/index\_ e.htm.

<a name=bib-nasaearthsciencedatasystems2020></a>[NASA Earth Science Data
Systems](#cite-nasaearthsciencedatasystems2020) (2020). _What Is Synthetic Aperture Radar?_
https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/backgrounders/what-is-sar. Backgrounder

<a name=bib-whittle2012></a>[Whittle, M., S. Quegan, Y. Uryu, et al.](#cite-whittle2012) (2012).
"Detection of Tropical Deforestation Using ALOS-PALSAR: A Sumatran Case Study". In: _Remote
Sensing of Environment_ 124, pp. 83-98.