SAR programmes in JAXA: from JERS-1 to the future

摘要

The author introduces the status of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's synthetic aperture radar (SAR) programmes and their scientific returns from the last 20 years of activity. The Earth observation programme was started using active microwave sensors in the early 1990s. Spaceborne SAR aboard Japanese Earth Resource's Satellite-1 (JERS-1) was the pathfinder, and airborne polarimetric and interferometric SAR followed. The Advanced Land Observing Satellite will be launched to carry PALSAR as a follow-up high-resolution, high-performance SAR.