The Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) installed on the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) core satellite was developed by JAXA and NICT. This paper describes mission objectives, technical performance, resource allocation, ground test results, orbital check out results and orbital operation status of the DPR. The DPR system PFT has completed in February 2012. GPM core spacecraft satellite system test has completed at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center 2013. GPM core observatory was shipped to JAXA Tanegashima Space Center, JAPAN and GPM core observatory was successfully launched by H-IIA launch vehicle on Feb 28, 2014. DPR orbital check out was completed in May 2014. DPR products released to the public on Sep. 2, 2014 and Normal Observation Operation period was started. The orbital operations status of DPR is reported in this paper.

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) is a joint venture between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The TRMM spacecraft was launched on November 27, 1997. In August 2001, TRMM was boosted to a higher operational altitude of 402.5 km from the initial one of 350 km, to save fuel and extend the mission life. On July 8, 2014, a significant pressure drop during the orbit maintenance maneuver indicated the exhaustion of the onboard propellant. Precipitation Radar (PR) cannot collect the scientific meaningful data by the usual operation between the satellite altitudes of 402.5 km to 350 km. In order to obtain useful knowledge on development of future space borne precipitation radar, the special observation experiments were done during the TRMM satellite descending.

This paper describes current status of the level 1 algorithm development and calibration for the Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) onboard the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM). JAXA has carried out the calibration for the DPR since the GPM core observatory was launched on February 28, 2014 (JST). As a result of the external calibration, it is detected that some biases seemed to exist. However, JAXA has not adjusted the calibration coefficient of the DPR level 1 algorithm because of two reasons. One is the errors of the external calibration. In the external calibration, the measurement error and estimation error for the power may occur. The other reason is the continuity of the surface backscattering cross section (denoted as σ0) from Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Precipitation Radar (PR). Requirement of the continuity has been satisfied by using the current calibration coefficient.

The Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) installed on the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) core satellite was developed by JAXA and NICT. This paper describes mission objectives, technical performance, resource allocation, design, proto-flight test (PFT) of the DPR instrument, satellite system test including launch operations and orbital check out results of the DPR. The DPR system PFT has completed in February 2012. DPR has handed over to NASA and integration of the DPR to the GPM core spacecraft have completed in May 2012. GPM core spacecraft satellite system test has completed at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. GPM core observatory was shipped to JAXA Tanegashima Space Center, JAPAN and Launch Site Operations has completed. GPM core observatory was successfully launched by H-IIA launch vehicle on Feb 28, 2014. DPR orbital check out had started in March 2014 and it was completed in May 2014. The orbital check out results of DPR is reported in this paper.

The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission consists of the GPM core Observatory (satellite) and the constellation satellites. The GPM core Observatory launched at 3:37 on February 28, 2014 (JST) from Tanegashima Space Center in Japan. It carries the Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) and the GPM Microwave Imager (GMI). The DPR consists of Ku-band precipitation radar (KuPR) and Ka-band precipitation radar (KaPR). These radars have developed by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) [1] and GMI has developed by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The DPR level 1 algorithm has been developed by the JAXA. The main roles of level 1 algorithm are limit check for fatal and caution incidents, orbital cut and calculation of geometric information and transformation for engineering value. JAXA also has the responsibility of calibration of the DPR. The calibration methods have two types. One is the internal calibration with onboard calibration system, and the other is the external calibration with Active Radar Calibrator (ARC). These calibrations will carry out densely by the public data release. This paper describes the concepts of the level 1 algorithm and the calibration methods.

This paper presents a new in-vitro simulator that can simulate the new technology of three-dimensional digital subtraction angiography (DSA) to perform a cerebral aneurysm surgery. Then, propose a new technique for the numerical evaluation of the surgical tools applied within this interventional surgery to aid in the design and selection of surgical instruments. Initially, the in-vitro intravascular simulator was constructed, followed by cerebral aneurysm models that were fabricated with highly sensitive photoelastic materials of epoxy resin. Then reconstruct virtual reality modeling of the blood vessel and catheter to record the position information and realize virtual guidance for training. Meanwhile, conduct image processing of photoelastic effects for numerical evaluations of surgical instruments such as catheter insertion and stent expansion. During the stent expansion experiment, the average stress in the selected region of interest caused by the expansion was calculated and compared with the corresponding value obtained before the expansion. The presented simulator and measurement technique can assist in improving a surgeons skills, quantifying the performance of medical mechanisms, and contribute to 3D analysis of stress distribution. This approach can also provide feedback control for robot assisted endovascular systems.

The Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) installed on the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) core satellite is being developed by JAXA and NICT. This paper describes mission objectives, technical performance, resource allocation, critical design, proto-flight test (PFT) of the DPR instrument and satellite system test status. The DPR system PFT has completed in February 2012. DPR has handed over to NASA and integration of the DPR to the GPM core spacecraft have completed in May 2012. GPM core spacecraft satellite system test has started at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. After completion of all satellite system tests, the GPM core spacecraft will be sent to JAXA Tanegashima Space Center and launched by H-IIA launch vehicle.

For the development of medical micro-robotics and robotic manipulation of catheter it is necessary to ensure tissue integrity. In-vitro evaluation of tissue manipulation can be achieved using photoelastic stress analysis and vasculature modeling with photoelastic materials. In this research we propose epoxy resin as photoelastic material for vasculature modeling as it has a larger photoelastic coefficient than previously studied materials and it has a young modulus similar to human vasculature. A model of a saccular aneurysm with bleb was built with the purpose of measuring stress overshoots that enable to differentiate embolization techniques according to the respect for tissue integrity. During embolization using a coil with smaller size than the aneurysm dome diameter, an average area of 0.72 mm2with stress above 90 kPa was measured. This area increased to 0.77 mm2when the dome was touched with the release mechanism of the coil, and to 0.74 mm2for embolization with larger size coil. The presented modeling material and measurement technique is useful for tissue respect quantification for micro-mechanisms evaluation.

For the development of artificial intelligent diagnosis for cerebrovascular intervention, it is desirable to forecast the growth of cerebral aneurysms. In order to achieve such purpose, it is needed to evaluate wall shear stress, strain, pressure, deformation and flow velocity in the aneurysm region. In this research, we focus on in-vitro strain and deformation measurements of cerebral aneurysm models, and propose a cyber-physical system, in which a scaled-up membranous silicone model of cerebral aneurysm was built and integrated with a specialized pump for the pulsatile blood flow simulation, and a vision system was constructed to measure the strain on different regions on the model with pulsatile blood flow circulated inside. Experimental results show that both distance and area strain maxima were larger for the aneurysm neck (0.042 and 0.052), followed by the aneurysm dome (0.023 and 0.04) and then by the main blood vessel section (0.01 and 0.014), which were complemented with computer fluid dynamics simulation for the inclusion of wall shear stress, oscillatory shear index and aneurysm formation index. Medical imaging data of the cerebral aneurysm in 2008 and 2011 was obtained. Diagnosis results have concordance with the aneurysm growth in 2011. The presented measurement method offers an option for measuring strain and deformation to be complementary with computer fluid dynamics and photoelastic stress analysis for advanced diagnostic in the endovascular surgery.

The Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) installed on the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) core satellite is being developed by JAXA and NICT. This paper describes objectives, technical performance, resource allocation, preliminary design, development model test, critical design and proto-flight test (PFT) of the DPR instrument. The DPR system PFT will be completed in 2011. After completion of all PFT, the DPR instrument will be verified as a space borne radar.

This paper presents a novel regularity evaluation of placement structure and MOS analog specific layout techniques called diffusion sharing and well island generation, which are developed based on sequence-pair. The regular structures such as topological row, array and repetitive structure are characterized by the way of forming subsequences of a sequence-pair. A placement objective is formulated balancing the regularity and the area efficiency. Furthermore, diffusion sharing and well island can be also identified looking into forming of a sequence-pair. In experiments, we applied our regularity-oriented placement mixed with the constrait-driven technique to real analog designs, and attained the results comparable to manual designs even when imposing symmetry constraints. Besides, the results also revealed the regularity serves to increase row-structures applicable to the diffusion-sharing for the area and wire-length saving.

European and Japanese space agencies plan to launch a satellite called EarthCARE (Earth Clouds, Aerosols and Radiation Explorer). The Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR), which will be the first millimeter-wave Doppler radar in space, is installed on this satellite as a main sensor to observe clouds. This paper describes the outline of the system design of EarthCARE CPR.

The Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) installed on the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) core satellite is being developed by JAXA and NICT. This paper describes the results of preliminary design of the DPR instrument. GPM

After the great success of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) started as an international mission and follow-on mission of the TRMM project to obtain more accurate and frequent observations of precipitation. The accurate measurement of precipitation will be achieved by the DPR installed on the GPM core satellite. In order to estimate accurate precipitation rate value, calibration and validation of the DPR algorithms and products are essential. From the experiences of TRMM validations, it is important for the DPR algorithm validation to compare between precipitation rate through the calculation of DPR algorithm and that of the directly observed precipitation rate over the validation site. For this purpose, the most important and difficult issue is to construct the database of the physical parameters for the precipitation retrieval algorithms of DPR from the ground-based data using well-calibrated instruments.

The Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) installed on the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) core satellite is being developed by JAXA and NICT. This work describes the mission objectives, the precipitation measurement method and techniques, and the construction of the DPR.

The precipitation radar (PR) onboard the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite is the first spaceborne radar to measure precipitation from space. The PR, operating at 13.8 GHz, is a 128-element active phased array that allows a fast and sophisticated cross-track scanning over a swath width of 215 km with a cross-range spatial resolution of about 4.3 km. The PR has a minimum detectable rain rate of 0.5 mm/h with range resolution of 250 m. In order to achieve a reliable and accurate rain echo data for three years mission life, functions for internal and external calibrations are implemented. Through a series of PR flight-model tests on the ground and an initial checkout just after the TRMM launch, it is confirmed that the PR functions properly and meets the performance requirements to quantitatively measure three-dimensional (3D) precipitation distribution from space.