The Global Change Observation Mission-Water (GCOM-W) satellite was launched by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in May 2012. It carries the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2), which is a 6-band multi-frequency, dual-polarization microwave radiometer with a 2-m aperture antenna. The GCOM-W/AMSR2 completed its 5-year designed mission life in May 2017, and has transferred to extended-mission phase. Besides the 10-month gaps between AMSR-E and AMSR2, the AMSR series provide long-term global observation data for studies of the global water cycle, airsea interactions and polar environments. An overview of these studies is given in this paper.

The Global Change Observation Mission (GCOM) consists of two satellite missions, GCOM-W (Water) and GCOM-C (Climate), and aims to provide comprehensive information of the Essential Climate Variables (ECVs) of atmosphere, ocean, land, cryosphere and ecosystem. The GCOM-W "SHIZUKU" satellite was launched in May 2012, which carries the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2). It achieved its 5-year designed mission life in May 2017 and is currently in extended mission phase. The GCOM-W satellite is joining in the A-train orbit to provide synergies with the other A-train satellites, such as Aqua and Cloudsat. The GCOM-C "SHIKISAI" satellite was launched in December 2017, which carries the Second generation Global Imager (SGLI). SGLI data has been released to public since December 20, 2018. Both AMSR2 and SGLI data are used in operational numerical weather prediction and environmental monitoring to reduce meteorological disasters. Because of its observation capability and observation local time, both GCOM satellites have synergies with the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) program and can contribute to objectives of JPSS.

JAXA is now planning GCOM mission which is composed of a series of satellites. They are called GCOM-W and GCOM-C satellites. Both satellites are composed of 3 satellites with 5 year lifetime. Hence, 13 years of continuous observation can be assured with 1 year overlaps. The first satellite of GCOM-W was launched on 18, May, 2012 while the first one of GCOM-C was launched on 23, Dec. 2017. GCOM-W1 carries AMSR-2. AMSR-2 is very similar to AMSR on ADEOSII and AMSR-E on EOS-Aqua with some modifications. GCOM-C1 carries SGLI. The SGLI is rather different from GLI. The main targets of SGLI are atmospheric aerosols, coastal zone and land. In order to measure aerosols over both ocean and land, it has an near ultra violet channel, as well as polarization and bi-directional observation capability. For, coastal zone and land observation, the IFOV of SGLI for these targets is around 250m. On the other hand, Himawari8 and 9 were launched by Japan Meteorological Agency on 2016 and 2017. The sensor AHI on board Himawari 8 & 9 have 16 channels from visible to thermal infrared, and many channels are similar to the SGLI channels. Hence, several products using AHI data were generated using SGLI algorithms. While SGLI has better spatial resolutions and S/N, but AHI has far higher temporal resolution, i.e. 10 minutes. Combining SGLI products and AHI products opens new scientific incites. One of the example is ocean environments. SGLI generates very accurate and precise SST and Chlorophyll-a concentrations while AHI generated the diurnal changes of these geophysical parameters.

JAXA is now planning GCOM mission which is composed of a series of satellites. They are called GCOM- W and GCOM-C satellites. Both satellites are composed of 3 satellites with 5 year lifetime. Hence, 13 years of continuous observation can be assured with 1 year overlaps. The first satellite of GCOM-W was launched on 18, May, 2012 while the first one of GCOM-C was launched on 23, Dec. 2017. GCOM-Wl carries AMSR-2. AMSR-2 is very similar to AMSR on ADEOS II and AMSR-E on EOS-Aqua with some modifications. GCOM-Cl will carry SGLI. The SGLI will be rather different from GLI. The main targets of SGLI are atmospheric aerosols, coastal zone and land. In order to measure aerosols over both ocean and land, it will have an near ultra violet channel, as well as polarization and bidirectional observation capability. For, coastal zone and land observation, the IFOV of SGLI for these targets is around 250m. The instrument will be composed of several components. The shorter wavelength region adopts push broom scanners, while long wave region uses a conventional whisk broom scanner. The orbit of GCOM-Wl is A-train, while the orbit of GCOM-Cl will be similar to ADEOS II GCOM-C L1B product will be distributed from June 2018, and the initial results from GCOM-C will be presented at the Symposium.

ADEOS II was launched on Dec., 2002. However, after about 10 months operation, it has lost most of its power due to the solar paddle failure. As a follow on of ADEOS II mission, JAXA is now planning GCOM mission which is composed of a series of satellites. They are now called GCOM-W and GCOM-C satellites. Both satellites are composed of 3 satellites with 5 year lifetime. Hence, 13 years of continuous observation can be assured with 1 year overlaps. The first satellite of GCOM-W was launched on 18, May, 2012 while the first one of GCOM-C will be launched in 2017. GCOM-W1 carries AMSR-2 (AMSR F/O). AMSR-2 is very similar to AMSR on ADEOS II and AMSR-E on EOS-Aqua with some modifications. GCOM-C1 will carry SGLI (GLI F/O). The SGLI will be rather different from GLI. The main targets of SGLI are atmospheric aerosols, coastal zone and land. In order to measure aerosols over both ocean and land, it will have an near ultra violet channel, as well as polarization and bi-directional observation capability. For, coastal zone and land observation, the IFOV of SGLI for these targets will be around 250m. The instrument will be composed of several components. The shorter wavelength region will adopt push broom scanners, while long wave region will use a conventional whisk broom scanner. The orbit of GCOM-W1 is A-train, while the orbit of GCOM-C1 will be similar to ADEOS II.

ADEOS II was launched on Dec., 2002. However, after about 10 months operation, it has lost most of its power due to the solar paddle failure. As a follow on of ADEOS II mission, JAXA is now planning GCOM mission which is composed of a series of satellites. They are now called GCOM-W and GCOM-C satellites. Both satellites are composed of 3 satellites with 5 year lifetime. Hence, 13 years of continuous observation can be assured with 1 year overlaps. The first satellite of GCOM-W was launched on 18, May, 2012 while the first one of GCOM-C will be launched in fiscal 2016. GCOM-W1 carries AMSR-2 (AMSR F/O). AMSR-2 is very similar to AMSR on ADEOS II and AMSR-E on EOS-Aqua with some modifications. GCOM-C1 will carry SGLI (GLI F/O). The SGLI will be rather different from GLI. The main targets of SGLI are atmospheric aerosols, coastal zone and land. In order to measure aerosols over both ocean and land, it will have an near ultra violet channel, as well as polarization and bi-directional observation capability. For, coastal zone and land observation, the IFOV of SGLI for these targets will be around 250m. The instrument will be composed of several components. The shorter wavelength region will adopt push broom scanners, while long wave region will use a conventional whisk broom scanner. The orbit of GCOM-W1 is A-train, while the orbit of GCOM-C1 will be similar to ADEOS II.

ADEOS II was launched on Dec., 2002. However, after about 10 months operation, it has lost most of its power due to the solar paddle failure. As a follow on of ADEOS II mission, JAXA is now planning GCOM mission which is composed of a series of satellites. They are now called GCOM-W and GCOM-C satellites. Both satellites are composed of 3 satellites with 5 year lifetime. Hence, 13 years of continuous observation can be assured with 1 year overlaps. The first satellite of GCOM-W was launched on 18, May, 2012 while the first one of GCOM-C will be launched in fiscal 2016. GCOM-W1 carries AMSR-2 (AMSR F/O). AMSR-2 is very similar to AMSR on ADEOS II and AMSR-E on EOS-Aqua with some modifications. GCOM-C1 will carry SGLI (GLI F/O). The SGLI will be rather different from GLI. The main targets of SGLI are atmospheric aerosols, coastal zone and land. In order to measure aerosols over both ocean and land, it will have an near ultra violet channel, as well as polarization and bi-directional observation capability. For, coastal zone and land observation, the IFOV of SGLI for these targets will be around 250m. The instrument will be composed of several components. The shorter wavelength region will adopt push broom scanners, while long wave region will use a conventional whisk broom scanner. The orbit of GCOM-W1 is A-train, while the orbit of GCOM-C1 will be similar to ADEOS II.

ADEOS II was launched on Dec., 2002. However, after about 10 months operation, it has lost most of its power due to the solar paddle failure. As a follow on of ADEOS II mission, JAXA is now planning GCOM mission which is composed of a series of satellites. They are now called GCOM-W and GCOM-C satellites. Both satellites are composed of 3 satellites with 5 year lifetime. Hence, 13 years of continuous observation can be assured with 1 year overlaps. The first satellite of GCOM-W was launched on 18, May, 2012 while the first one of GCOM-C will be launched in fiscal 2016. GCOM-W1 carries AMSR-2 (AMSR F/O). AMSR-2 is very similar to AMSR on ADEOS II and AMSR-E on EOS-Aqua with some modifications. GCOM-C1 will carry SGLI (GLI F/O). The SGLI will be rather different from GLI. The main targets of SGLI are atmospheric aerosols, coastal zone and land. In order to measure aerosols over both ocean and land, it will have an near ultra violet channel, as well as polarization and bi-directional observation capability. For, coastal zone and land observation, the IFOV of SGLI for these targets will be around 250m. The instrument will be composed of several components. The shorter wavelength region will adopt push broom scanners, while long wave region will use a conventional whisk broom scanner. The orbit of GCOM-W is A-train, while the orbit of GCOM-C will be similar to ADEOS II.

ADEOS II was launched on Dec., 2002. However, after about 10 months operation, it has lost most of its power due to the solar paddle failure. As a follow on of ADEOS II mission, JAXA is now planning GCOM mission which is composed of a series of satellites. They are now called GCOM-W and GCOM-C satellites. Both satellites are composed of 3 satellites with 5 year lifetime. Hence, 13 years of continuous observation can be assured with 1 year overlaps. The first satellite of GCOM-W was launched on 18, May, 2012 while the first one of GCOM-C will be launched in fiscal 2015. GCOM-W1 carries AMSR-2 (AMSR F/O). AMSR-2 is very similar to AMSR on ADEOS II and AMSR-E on EOS-Aqua with some modifications. GCOM-C1 will carry SGLI (GLI F/O). The SGLI will be rather different from GLI. The main targets of SGLI are atmospheric aerosols, coastal zone and land. In order to measure aerosols over both ocean and land, it will have an near ultra violet channel, as well as polarization and bi-directional observation capability. For, coastal zone and land observation, the IFOV of SGLI for these targets will be around 250m. The instrument will be composed of several components. The shorter wavelength region will adopt push broom scanners, while long wave region will use a conventional whisk broom scanner. The orbit of GCOM-W will be A-train, while the orbit of GCOM-C will be similar to ADEOS II.

ADEOS II was launched on Dec., 2002. However, after about 10 months operation, it has lost most of its power due to the solar paddle failure. As a follow on of ADEOS II mission, JAXA is now planning GCOM mission which is composed of a series of satellites. They are now called GCOM-W and GCOM-C satellites. Both satellites are composed of 3 satellites with 5 year lifetime. Hence, 13 years of continuous observation can be assured with 1 year overlaps. The first satellite of GCOM-W will be launched in fiscal 2011 while the first one of GCOM-C will be launched in fiscal 2014. GCOM-W1 will carry AMSR-2 (AMSR F/O). AMSR-2 will be very similar to AMSR on ADEOS II and AMSR-E on EOS-Aqua with some modifications. GCOM-C1 will carry SGLI (GLI F/O). The SGLI will be rather different from GLI. The main targets of SGLI are atmospheric aerosols, coastal zone and land. In order to measure aerosols over both ocean and land, it will have an near ultra violet channel, as well as polarization and bi-directional observation capability. For, coastal zone and land observation, the IFOV of SGLI for these targets will be around 250m. The instrument will be composed of several components. The shorter wavelength region will adopt push broom scanners, while long wave region will use a conventional whisk broom scanner. The orbit of GCOM-W will be A-train, while the orbit of GCOM-C will be similar to ADEOS II.

The objective of this study is to develop land cover classification algorithm for Global and/or continental scale by using multi-temporal MODIS land reflectance products. Time-domain co-occurrence matrix is introduced as a classification feature that represents time-series signature of land covers. And the non-parametric minimum distance classification using Euclidian distance or cosine distance is conducted. As results, Surface Reflectance 8-Day L3 product and Nadir BRDF-Adjusted Reflectance product showed similar classification accuracy of 91%-93% for IGBP-17 land cover categories. Furthermore, it is confirmed that the accuracy is 14%-17% higher than that of MODIS land cover product for the target classification area.

ADEOS II was launched on Dec., 2002. However, after about 10 months operation, it has lost most of its power due to the solar paddle failure. As a follow on of ADEOS II mission, JAXA is now planning GCOM mission which is composed of a series of satellites. They are now called GCOM-W and GCOM-C satellites. Both satellites are composed of 3 satellites with 5 year lifetime. Hence, 13 years of continuous observation can be assured with 1 year overlaps. The first satellite of GCOM-W will be launched in 2011 while the first one of GCOM-C will be launched in 2014. GCOM-W will carry AMSR-2 (AMSR F/O). AMSR-2 will be very similar to AMSR on ADEOS II and AMSR-E on EOS-Aqua with some modifications. GCOM-C will carry SGLI (GLI F/O). The SGLI will be rather different from GLI. The main targets of SGLI are atmospheric aerosols, coastal zone and land. In order to measure aerosols over both ocean and land, it will have an near ultra violet channel, as well as polarization and bidirectional observation capability. For, coastal zone and land observation, the IFOV of SGLI for these targets will be around 250m. The instrument will be composed of several components. The shorter wavelength region will adopt push broom scanners, while long wave region will use a conventional whisk broom scanner. The orbit of GCOM-W will be A-train, while the orbit of GCOM-C will be similar to ADEOS II.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is pursuing the Global Change Observation Mission (GCOM) that will inherit the Advanced Earth Observing Satellite-II (ADEOS-II) mission and develop into long-term monitoring. GCOM is not the name of a single satellite, but of a mission that consists of two series of medium-size satellites, GCOM-W (Water) and GCOM-C (Climate), and three generations of each satellite series to continue the observations for 10 to 15 years. The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-2 (AMSR2) will be the single instrument on the GCOM-W1 satellite, which is the first satellite of the GCOM series. The second satellite will be GCOM-C1, which will carry the Second-generation Global Imager (SGLI). GCOM-W will mainly contribute to the observations related to global water and energy circulation, while GCOM-C will contribute to the measurements related to the carbon cycle and radiation budget. Current target launch years are calendar year 2011 for GCOM-W1 and 2014 for C1.

ADEOS II was launched on Dec, 2002. However, after about 10 months operation, it has lost most of its power due to the solar paddle failure. As a follow on of ADEOS II mission, JAXA is now planning GCOM mission which is composed of a series of satellites. They are now tentatively called GCOM-W and GCOM-C satellites. Both satellites are composed of 3 satellites with 5 year lifetime. Hence, 13 years of continuous observation can be assured with 1 year overlaps. The first satellite of GCOM-W will be launched in 2011 while the first one of GCOM-C will be launched in 2014. GCOM-W will carry AMSR-2 (AMSR F/O). AMSR-2 will be very similar to AMSR on ADEOS II and AMSR-E on EOS-Aqua with some modifications. GCOM-C will carry SGLI (GLI F/O). The SGLI will be rather different from GLI. The main targets of SGLI are atmospheric aerosols, coastal zone and land. In order to measure aerosols over both ocean and land, it will have an near ultra violet channel, as well as polarization and bi-directional observation capability. For, coastal zone and land observation, the IFOV of SGLI for these targets will be around 250 m. The instrument will be composed of several components. The shorter wavelength region will adopt push broom scanners, while long wave region will use a conventional whisk broom scanner. The orbit of GCOM-W will be similar to EOS-Aqua, while the orbit of GCOM-C will be similar to ADEOS II.

ADEOS II was launched on Dec., 2002. However, after about 10 months operation, it has lost most of its power due to the solar paddle failure. As a follow on of ADEOS II mission, JAXA is now planning GCOM mission which is composed of a series of satellites. They are now tentatively called GCOM-W and GCOM-C satellites. Both satellites are composed of 3 satellites with 5 year lifetime. Hence, I3 years of continuous observation can be assured with I year overlaps. The first satellite of GCOM W will be launched in 20I0 while the first one of GCOM-C will be launched in 2011. GCOM-W will carry AMSR-2 (AMSR F/O). AMSR-2 will be very similar to AMSR on ADEOS II and AMSR E on EOS-Aqua with some modifications. GCOM-C will carry SGLI (GLI F/O). The SGLI will be rather different from GLI. The main targets of SGLI are atmospheric aerosols, coastal zone and land. In order to measure aerosols over both ocean and land, it will have an near ultra violet channel, as well as polarization and bi-directional observation capability. For, coastal zone and land observation, the IFOV of SGLI for these targets will be around 250m. The instrument will be composed of several components. The shorter wavelength region will adopt push broom scanners, while long wave region will use a conventional whisk broom scanner. The orbit of GCOM-W will be similar to EOS-Aqua, while the orbit of GCOM-C will be similar to ADEOS II.

ADEOS II was launched on Dec., 2002. However, after about 10 months operation, it has lost most of its power due to the solar paddle failure. The exact cause of the accident is not apparent at this time, JAXA is now considering to launch a satellite as a substitute of ADEOS II. Up to now, candidate sensors on board this satellite is 3, i.e. GLI follow on, AMSR follow on and SeaWinds follow on. The GLI F/O would be rather different from GLI. The main targets of GLI F/O are atmospheric aerosols, coastal zone and land. In order measure aerosols over both ocean and land, it would have ultra violet channels, as well as polarization and bidirectional observation capability. For, coastal zone and land observation, the IFOV of GLI F/O for these targets would be around 250 m. The instrument would be composed of several components. The shorter wavelength region would adopt push broom scanners, while long wave region would use a conventional whisk broom scanner. AMSR F/O would be very similar to AMSR on ADEOS II and AMSR-E on EOS-Aqua. SeaWinds F/O would be also similar to SeaWinds on ADEOS II with some modifications. There are two options on the orbit. One is the same to that of ADEOS II, i.e. around 800 km altitude. Another is a higher orbit to allow faster turn around. The target launch date is fiscal 2008

Global Change Observation Mission (GCOM) is a follow on mission of ADEOS, ADEOS2 and TRMM. It is under phase A study in NASDA (National Space Development Agency of Japan). GCOM is not a series of satellites but a mission and its concept is to continuously monitor geophysical parameters which are critical to understand global change phenomena, especially phenomena related to climate change. Those parameters include, but not limited to, optical thickness of aerosols and clouds, water and energy fluxes, carbon fluxes, sink and source of greenhouse gases, atmospheric constituents, etc. The measurement of geophysical parameters will continue more than 15 years after the launch of ADEOS2. The first generation satellites of GCOM after ADEOS2 is now composed of 3 satellites, i.e. GOSAT (joint program of NASDA and MOE), CCOM (tentative name), and GPM core satellite (joint program of NASDA and NASA). The main target of GOSAT is to clarify the sinks and sources of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, in the continental scales by monitoring atmospheric green house gases distribution. The target of CCOM is to measure geophysical parameters which are uncertain in the today's climate models. GPM core satellite is a follow on of TRMM and the target of GPM core satellite is to measure precipitation. GOSAT will carry at least 2 instruments, i.e. an instrument which can measure tropospheric carbon dioxide, and SWIFT (Stratospheric Wind Interferometer: stratospheric wind sensor). CCOM will carry three core instruments, i.e. SGLI (GLI follow on, which covers from UV to IR), AMSR2 (AMSR follow on), alpha-Scat (SeaWinds follow on). Other instruments may be added based on an AO process. GPM core satellite will carry 2 instruments, i.e. DPR (Dual Precipitation Radar: PR follow on) and a microwave radiometer. The orbit of CCOM will be a sun synchronous orbit, which is almost the same as ADEOS2. The orbits of GOSAT and GPM core satellite will be around 700 km and 400 km, respectively. These 3 satellites are planned to be launched in 2007 and 2008.

In order to develop and/or improve algorithms of extracting various sea ice parameters, such as sea ice concentration, sea ice thickness, and sea ice types from ALOS data, it is necessary to prepare certain data set for verification. This paper describes about the preparation of multi-stage remote sensing for obtaining a series of remotely sensed data of sea ice in the Okhotsk Sea.

PRISM (Panchromatic Remote sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping), will be board ALOS, has IFOV of 2.5 m on the ground and three-direction telescope; forward, nadir and backward view. The B/H ratio between the forward and backward views is 1.0. JPEG lossy data compression into 1/4.5 to 1/9 is planed to apply to the data of PRISM. The simulation data sets are created to develop and evaluate DEM generation algorithms for PRISM observation data. The five kinds of test regions are selected as test area from the view point of ground texture. The each data set for five regions is composed of forward, nadir and backward images of PRISM under the two kinds of atmospheric condition, three kinds of SN ratio, and three kinds of JPEG lossy data compression ratio. DEM, ortho image, attitude and ephemeris data of the sensor are also included in the data set.

Global Change Observation Mission (GCOM) is a follow on mission of ADEOS, ADEOS2 and TRMM. It is under phase A study in NASDA. GCOM is not a series of satellites but a mission and its concept is to continuously monitor geophysical parameters which are critical to understand global change phenomena, especially phenomena related to climate change. Those parameters include, but not limited to, optical thickness of aerosols and clouds, water and energy fluxes, carbon fluxes, sink and source of greenhouse gases, atmospheric constituents, etc. The measurements of geophysical parameters will continue more than 15 years after the launch of ADEOS2. The first generation satellites of GCOM after ADEOS2 is now composed of 3 satellites, i.e. GCOM-A1, GCOM-B1, and GPM core satellite. The follow on satellites of ADEOS2 is divided into 2 satellites, i.e. GCOM-A1 and GCOM-B1. The target of GCOM-A1 is to monitor stratospheric and upper tropospheric greenhouse gases distribution and ozone as well as ozone related constituents. The target of GCOM-B1 is to measure geophysical parameters which are uncertain in the today's climate models. GPM core satellite is a follow on of TRMM and the target of GPM core satellite is to measure precipitation. GCOM-A1 will carry 3 instruments, i.e. OPUS (Ozone and Pollution Ultra-violet Sounder : TOMS follow on), SOFIS (Solar Occultation Fourier Interferometric Sounder : ILAS follow on), and SWIFT (Stratospheric Wind Interferometer : stratospheric wind sensor). GCOM-B1 will carry three core instruments, i.e. SGLI (GLI follow on ), AMSR2 (AMSR follow on), alpha-Scat (SeaWinds follow on). GPM core satellite will carry 2 instruments, i.e. DPR (Dual Precipitation Radar: PR follow on) and a microwave radiometer.

The Ozone and Pollution measuring Ultraviolet Spectrometer (OPUS) is a satellite-borne, nadir-looking ultraviolet spectrometer for measuring total column ozone, SO/sub 2/, aerosols, NO/sub 2/, HCHO, BrO, and OClO. It will be a NASDA's core instrument of GCOM-A1 (GCOM: Global Change Observation Mission) satellite to be launched in 2007. The GCOM program is designed to determine the climate trends. The GCOM-A1 will carry the SOFIS (Solar-occultation FTS for Inclined-orbit Satellite, developed by Environment Agency of Japan), and SWIFT, which measures stratospheric wind, provided by ESA/CSA.

Calibration results of the advanced visible and near infrared radiometer (AVNIR) on board ADEOS are presented. First, the AVNIR responses to the internal and external calibration sources are evaluated, and their short- and long-term stabilities are summarized. Second, absolute radiometric calibration of AVNIR is conducted by using the NASA JPL's calibrated airborne optical sensor, and the results from several different calibration methods (preflight calibration, and in-flight calibrations using the on-board data, the AVIRIS, and the vicarious method) are compared. Third, the geometric accuracy and the image quality are summarized.