This paper evaluates the digital surface model (DSM) generated from satellite stereo imageries that are simulated by the technology of 3-dimensional computer graphics (3D/CG), as one of the preliminary simulations for the future mission in the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). By using the 3D/CG instead of real satellite imageries, arbitrary conditions of stereo observation, such as the combinations of viewing angles, can be simulated with fewer limitations. Here we validate the effects of the B/H differences in the DSM generations as a first experiment of this approach. The height accuracies of the DSMs, which are derived from simulated stereo imageries of different B/Hs, are compared quantitatively. The result showed that height errors in the city area rapidly increase as the B/Hs are enlarged due to the effect of occlusions around the buildings.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Earth Observation Research Center (EORC) has produced a high-resolution land-use and land-cover classification map for Japan indicating the average cover in 2018–2020. The classification accuracy was improved by using a combination of Sentinel-2 and ALOS-2/PALSAR-2 data. We developed a convolutional neural network-based algorithm specialized for pattern recognition in multispectral and time-series feature spaces, and achieved an overall accuracy of 88.85% in 12 classifications. This is the most accurate high-resolution land-cover map ever produced by JAXA. This highly accurate product is being used for the calculation of SDGs global indicators such as 15.4.2 “Mountain Green Cover Index”.

The “Advanced Optical Satellite” (ALOS-3, nicknamed “DAICHI-3”) is the next high-resolution optical mission as a successor of the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) in Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and will be launched in early 2022. The mission objectives of ALOS-3 are (1) to contribute safe and secure social including provision for natural disasters, and (2) to create and update geospatial information. The “wide-swath and high-resolution optical imager” is designed to be achieved the missions, which consists of the panchromatic band with 0.8 m ground sampling distance (GSD) and multispectral six bands with 3.2 m GSD, and the observation swath width is 70 km at nadir. This paper introduces the updated ALOS-3 calibration and validation preparation status at JAXA. As the target accuracy of ALOS-3 standard product, the absolute geometric accuracy is 1.25 m in horizontal and 2.5 m in vertical with GCPs (1 sigma), and the absolute radiometric accuracy is +/ - 10 % for the multispectral band.

The “Advanced Land Observing Satellite-3 (ALOS-3)” is a follow-on satellite of the optical sensors onboard the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) in the series of land observing satellites launched by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). It equips with panchromatic and six-band multispectral optical sensors that have ground resolutions of 0.8 m and 3.2 m respectively while keeping the wide swath of 70 km that is the same as their predecessors onboard the ALOS. The satellite can collect stereo imageries by using a function of large body-pointing up to 60 degrees from the nadir. The digital surface models (DSMs) are generated from stereo imageries as one of the high-level products. This paper reports on plans for the geometric calibration and its derived DSM processing for the ALOS-3 optical imageries.

The “Advanced Optical Satellite” (ALOS-3, nicknamed “DAICHI-3”) is the next high-resolution optical mission as a successor of the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) in Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and will be launched in Japanese Fiscal Year 2021. The mission objectives of ALOS-3 are (1) to contribute safe and secure social including provisions for natural disasters, and (2) to create and update geo-spatial information. The “wide-swath and high-resolution optical imager” is designed to be achieved the missions, which consists of the panchromatic band with 0.8 m ground sampling distance (GSD) and multispectral six bands with 3.2 m GSD, and the observation swath width is 70 km at nadir. This paper introduces the updated calibration and validation plan of ALOS-3 at JAXA. As the target accuracy of ALOS-3 standard product, the absolute geometric accuracy is 1.25 m in horizontal and 2.5 m in vertical with GCPs (1 sigma), and the absolute radiometric accuracy is +/−10 % for multispectral band.

The “Advanced Land Observing Satellite-3 (ALOS-3)” is a follow-on mission of the optical sensors onboard the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) in the series of land observing satellites launched by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). It equips with a panchromatic optical sensor that has a ground resolution of 0.8 m and a multispectral optical sensor that has six spectral bands at a ground resolution of 3.2 m, while keeping the wide swath of 70 km that is the same as the preceding optical sensors onboard the ALOS. The satellite will acquire stereo imageries by using a function of large body-pointing up to 60 degrees from nadir. The digital surface model (DSM) will be generated from the stereo imageries as one of the high-level products. This paper reports on an overview of the geometric calibration and its derived DSM generation for the ALOS-3 optical imageries.

The "Advanced Optical Satellite" is a follow-on satellite of the optical sensors onboard the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) and is called "ALOS-3" in the series of land observing satellites launched by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). It will achieve approximately three times higher ground resolution of 0.8 m while keeping the wide swath of 70 km as compared with its preceding Panchromatic Remote-sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping (PRISM) onboard the ALOS. Though the sensor does not equip with multiple sensor-units which achieve the full-time along-track stereo observation like the PRISM, it will be able to acquire stereo imageries by using a large body-pointing capability within 60 degrees from nadir. The digital surface model (DSM) is expected to be processed from the stereo imageries as one of the high-level products in the ALOS-3 mission. This paper reports on a pre-launch simulation of the DSM generation from the ALOS-3 stereo imageries.

The “Advanced Optical Satellite” (nicknamed “ALOS-3”) is the next high-resolution optical mission as a successor of the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) in Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and now conducting the Critical Design Review (CDR) phase. The mission objectives of ALOS-3 are (1) to contribute safe and secure social including provisions for natural disasters, and (2) to create and update geo-spatial information. The “wide-swath and high-resolution optical imager” is designed to be achieved the missions, which consists of the panchromatic band with 0.8 m ground sampling distance (GSD) and multi-spectral six bands with 3.2 m GSD, and the observation swath width is 70 km at nadir. In addition, the satellite has the body pointing capability within 60 deg. from nadir that will contribute to an emergency observation. In this study, the simulated images generation is introduced to investigate the feasibility of the missions as a part of pre- flight phase study.

A new global digital surface model (DSM) dataset using the archived data of the Panchromatic Remote-sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping (PRISM) onboard the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) has been completed on March 2016 by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) collaborating with NTT DATA Corp. and Remote Sensing Technology Center, Japan. This project calls “ALOS World 3D” (AW3D), and the dataset consists of the global DSM with 0.15 arcsec. pixel spacing (approx. 5 m mesh) and ortho-rectified PRISM images. JAXA is also processed the global DSM dataset with 1 arcsec. spacing (approx. 30 m mesh) calls “ALOS World 3D 30 m mesh” (AW3D30) based on the AW3D DSM, and released it free of charge on May 2016 as version 1. A weakness of the AW3D30 DSM is remaining void pixels due to cloud covers. This paper describes the AW3D30 partially updates by complementing void pixels using other global digital elevation models, and reports a validation result.

Panchromatic Remote-sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping 2 (PRISM-2), which will be used for the next high spatial resolution global land observation mission, will extend the capabilities of earlier Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) missions. PRISM-2 will be able to collect wide-swath (50 km) and high-resolution (0.8 m) images with high geo-location accuracy without ground control points. It will acquire stereo pair images from two telescopes for stereo mapping and precise Digital Surface Models (DSMs). This paper introduces the mission requirement for the next high spatial resolution global land observation mission and a conceptual design for PRISM-2.

The special and temporal analysis is a primitive approach in the remote sensing field. The Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS, nicknamed `Daichi') has been operated very well from 2006 to 2011, and mainly observed global land region with fine resolutions by three sensors i.e. an L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar called PALSAR and two optical instruments called PRISM and AVNIR-2. They have been captured actual Earth's surface in to this era. As the ALOS follow-on mission, ALOS-2 is succeeded to the Radar mission of ALOS and carried on the state-of-the-art L-band SAR called PALSAR-2, and will be launched in JFY2013. On another front, the ALOS follow-on optical mission has not been approved by the government. This study describes to generate the simulated images and their evaluations for the next land observation satellite. In JAXA, the optical imager that has capabilities of a finer resolution, wide observation swath width, and stereo function are expected as the PRISM follow-on instrument tentatively called PRISM-2. To identify hardware specifications of PRISM-2 as well as utilization capability of acquired data, simulated images were generated with various parameters using the airborne line scanner, and the image quality, interpretation capacity, and the height estimation accuracy by stereo pair images were evaluated.