NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER ISSUE#8 AUG. 2010

ISSUE #8AUG. 2010

NIESGOSJ AT

PRO ECTNEWSL ETTERCONTENTS
NEWSSummer Open House at NIESThe Third GOSAT Research Announcement - Now Calling for Applicants
Cloud and Aerosol Imager Captures Wildfires in Russia
IMAGES OF THE MONTH
Sea Ice in Arctic Ocean
DATA PRODUCTS UPDATENEWSANNOUNCEMENTCALENDAR
PUBLISHED PAPERS

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Independent Administrative Institution
National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES)
A newsletter on the Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite(GOSAT, “IBUKI” ) project from the NIES GOSAT Project Oﬃce.

http://www.gosat.nies.go.jp/

NEWS

Summer Open House At NIES

NIES GOSAT Project Hosts “IBUKI” Exhibition BoothOn July 24th, 2010, the National Institute forEnvironmental Studies hosted the Summer Open House. The
Summer Open House is an annual event held on late July
Saturday. Major research facilities are opened to the public.
The aim is to introduce state of the art research progressdirectly through experiments and lectures.
NIES GOSAT Project exhibited a miniature model of “IBUKI,”
as well as observation data and simulation results screened
on a spherical display, and demonstrated an experimentusing an instrument similar to the sensor on “IBUKI.” Theexhibition and experiment introduced the audience “IBUKI”
and the current status of research on global warming basedon “IBUKI”’s observation. At the site, 16 members from NIESGOSAT Project, including Project Leader Yokota, attended
the visitors and answered questions in person. Despite theheat outside (thetemperature hit 35°C ) , t h e C l i m a t e
Change ResearchHall where “IBUKI”’sbooth was located wascrowded with visitors
throughout the day.
Thank you for those
who came out to theevent.
NIES GOSAT Project Leader
Tatsuya Yokota stands next
to an illustrated versionof him on a sign at theentrance of the Climate
Change Research Hall.
Photo: Nobuyuki Kikuchi

The spherical display presented data including the global greenhouse gases
concentration maps estimated from “IBUKI”’s observation. People in yellow shirts
are NIES GOSAT Project members. Special Senior Researcher Shamil Maksyutov(L), GOSAT Project Office Manager Hiroshi Watanabe (C), and Office for Global
Environmental Database Chief Tsuneo Matsunaga (R).

An experiment to measure CO2 in a plastic bag using an instrument similar to thesensor on “IBUKI.” NIES Special Researcher Yukio Yoshida explaining to the visitors.

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NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER ISSUE#8 AUG. 2010

NEWS

The Third GOSAT Research Announcement - Now Calling for Applicants- Fumiho Takahashi
Guest Researcher,GOSAT Project Office, Center for Global Environmental Research (CGER), NIES

The World’s first earth
observing satellite that measures global
greenhouse gases, “IBUKI” (GOSAT) was
successfully launched on January 23,
2009. Since then, it has continued its
observation for about one and a half year.
GOSAT Project is a cooperative effort
among the Japan Aerospace Exploration
Agency, the National Institute forEnvironmental Studies, and the Ministryof the Environment (the three parties) topromote the development, operation,and data application of this satellite. As
the project has now gained a data set
for the duration of one and a half year,
its been decided that the third GOSAT
Research Announcement (RA) should bePhoto. At the second GOSAT RA PI Meeting held on January 28 and January 29, 2010 at Kyoto
International Conference Center, Kyoto, Japan.
posted.
In recent years, it has been recognizedTable. Examples of research themes from the first and second RA.
that greenhouse gases such as carbon
CALIBRATION
dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) take part
Infrared Validation and Mid-Tropospheric CO from the FTS GOSAT Sensor
in global warming, and “IBUKI” draws aAssessment of GOSAT TIR FTS absolute calibration through validation
great amount of attention from scientists
Characterization of micro vibration eﬀect to spaceborne-FTS on orbit
worldwide as a satellite that specifically
VALIDATION
An instrument prototype for column CO , CH and N O using direct solar ﬂuxmeasures greenhouse gases. The threeValidation study of GOSAT CO data with coherent diﬀerential absorption lidars
parties that promote GOSAT ProjectEvaluation and improvement of the phenology monitoring algorithm of terrestrial vegetation
posted the first RA in April 2008, and out
DATA PROCESSING ALGORITHMSof 58 proposals, 52 research themes wereAlgorithms for aerosol retrieval and validation for GOSAT / CAI : Combination use of multi-sensor data andselected. Then the second RA was released
ground based in-situ measurements
Studies on atmospheric minor constituents and polar stratospheric clouds retrieved from thermal infrared spectrain April 2009 after the launch, and 36of TANSO-FTS
research themes were selected out of 42
Retrieval of cirrus cloud parameters from TANSO-FTS spectra and investigation of global cirrus cloud variations
proposals. Through these RAs, researchers
CARBON BALANCE ESTIMATION AND ATMOSPHERIC TRANSPORT MODELS
around the world work on leading research
Quantiﬁcation of the carbon cycle in Europe and Western Africa by the top-down method
studies using GOSAT data products. The
Chemical data assimilation and inverse modeling of atmospheric CO
Four Dimensional Data Assimilation of GOSAT Observation Data Using a Local Ensemble Transform Karman Filter
examples of research themes adopted in theDATA APPLICATION
first and second RA are listed on the table.
Analysis of Spatial and Temporal Relationship Between Greenhouse Gases and Landuse/Landcover in China
Eligible applicants for the GOSAT RAs
Analysis of GOSAT methane data to characterize the methane source from rice paddies in Asia
are researchers of all nationalities whether
Aerosol distribution estimation using GOSAT CAI data in coastal environments for red tide bloom detection
independent or affiliated with research
institutions, educational organizations,
government institutions, or private companies, who aim to use 20th and October 29th, 2010. The decision of acceptance/
the GOSAT data products for non-profit and peaceful purposes. rejection is scheduled on January 31, 2011. The three parties
Once the research proposal is adopted, the researcher is given hope that more applications than the first and second RA arepriority when receiving GOSAT data products, and endowed going to be sent in by researchers around the world.
with rights to make observation requests under certain
For further information, please refer to NIES GOSAT Project
conditions, as well as an access to the additional information website’s “Research Announcement” section.
on GOSAT data products. The research proposals are called http://www.gosat.nies.go.jp/eng/proposal/proposal.htm
for on the following five categories: calibration, validation,
data processing algorithms, carbon balance estimation andatmospheric transport models, and data application.
Applications for the third RA are accepted between August2242222­­

NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER ISSUE#8 AUG. 2010

NEWSCloud and Aerosol Imager Captures Wildfires in Russia- Nobuyuki Kikuchi Specialist, GOSAT Proejct Office, CGER, NIES

A record-breaking heat wave
started in July 2010 in western Russia
was followed by wildfires in forests andpeat lands spreading across a large area
in late July. The image was acquiredby “IBUKI” on August 9, 2010. A site ofserious fire can be seen in the south eastof Moscow, and the smoke is moving
northwards and pouring into the Arctic
Ocean. Depending on the direction ofwind, Moscow was under the lee, andhow the thick smog covered Moscow
was in news.

IMAGES OF THE MONTH

Sea Ice in Arctic Ocean

Fires in western Russia captured on August 9, 2010 by “IBUKI.”- Nobuyuki Kikuchi
Specialist, GOSAT Project Office, CGER, NIES

Sea Ice observed by “IBUKI”. From Top Left (clockwise) June 2009, June 2010, July 2010, and June 2010.

The images introduced this month are of Cloud andAerosol Imager on “IBUKI.” These are four images comparing
the conditions of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean in June and Julyof 2009 and 2010. The surface areas of sea ice appear almost
the same in 2009 and 2010 images, but the differences canbe found if you have a close look near the land. In 2010, thesea ice in Hudson Bay appears completely disappeared, andin the McClure Strait in the Arctic Archipelago is also shown
disappeared. The temperature is said to be higher than theaverage worldwide this year. It can be seen in “IBUKI”’s images
that the impact is also on the sea ice in the Arctic Ocean.
The circular part near the north pole indicates the area ofabout 800km in diameter where “IBUKI” cannot observe. Theimages shown here are composites of lowest reflectance ratio
images of the month. This is the reason why there are shadowsof cloud shown in the images. The streaky shadows are seen inthe parts where the reflectance ratio is high, such as on the sea
ice and Greenland.
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NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER ISSUE#8 AUG. 2010DATA PRODUCTS UPDATE

Data Processing Status Update from GOSAT Project Oﬃce- Fumie Kawazoe, Specialist, NIES GOSAT Project Office

Here we report an update on
data processing status for the month ofJuly and August 2010. The The CAI L1B,L1B+, and L2 cloud flag products areprocessed and available to the public as
V00.90. The FTS L1B data products areprocesse and available as the V100100.
On August 24, 2010, for FTS L2 SWIR
CO2 and CH4 column amounts data, wehave released products as new versions
processed with new algorithms. The
new versions (V01.10, V01.20, V01.30)
of data from April, July, October 2009,and January 2010, and former versions(V00.80, V00.90) of data from August toOctober 2009, and from April to July 2010
are available in public along with themonthly important notices.
For more information on new version data, please refer to “Product Format Descriptions FTS L2 (V01.10 - V01.30 (SWIR L2 CO2, CH4),” “ImportantNotes at Releasing (V01.10-V01.30(SWIR L2 CO2, CH4)),” and “Results of Validation (V01.10-V01.30(SWIR L2 CO2, CH4))” under “Product Description”
page after logging in at GOSAT User Interface Gateway (GUIG).
Monthly important notice can be found on “Remarks on Monthly FTS L2 SWIR Product” page. For details on versions of released products, pleaserefer to “Products list under distribution,” “Relationship between obs. period and version.” The number of registered users reached 868 as of August20, 2010.

NEWSCALENDAR

Symposium on
Greenhouse Gases Measurement from Space
Hosted by GOSAT Project“Symposium on Greenhouse Gases Measurement fromSpace - A Role of Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite“IBUKI” (GOSAT) -” was held at KOKUYO Hall in Tokyo on
August 25, 2010. GOSAT Project Office appreciates verymuch all of you (298 people) who attended the event.
The entire event was live-streamed by Necovideo VisualSolutions, and now the video can be watched on theirwebsite.
http://nvs-live.com/achievements/20100825gosat.html

2010/09/05-09
Participation at the 2010 Meetingof Japanese Federation of StatisticalScience Associations ( JapanStatistical Society the 78th Meeting)held in Tokyo, Japan.
2010/09/06-08
Participation at the 2nd Workshop
on Carbon from Space held inOxford, UK.
2010/09/07-11
Participation at the 21st International

PUBLISHED PAPERS

Name of Journal: Journal of The Remote Sensing Society of Japan (Volume 30, Number 3,July 2010, pages 149-156)
Title: Lidar Observation of Stratospheric Aerosols Increased from the 2009 Mount
Sarychev Volcanic Eruption
Authors: Osamu Uchino, Tetsu Sakai, Tomohiro Nagai, Takuya Sakashita, Kenji Suzuki,
Takashi Shibata, Isamu Morino and Tatsuya Yokota* The paper is written in Japanese except for its abstract, figures, and tables.

NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER

Conference on High Resolution
Molecular Spectroscopy POZNAN 2010 held in Poznań,Poland.
2010/09/09-10
Participation at the 28th Laser
Sensing Symposium held in Otsu,
Shiga, Japan.
2010/09/20-23
Participation at the SPIE Remote
Sensing held in Toulouse, France.

ANNOUNCEMENT
The interview article with President
Shuichi Rokugawa of the Remote
Sensing Society of Japan is postponed,and scheduled for the next issue.

ISSUE #8 AUG. 2010

Issued On : 2010.09.03
Revised On : 2011.02.08

edited and published by : NIES GOSAT Project Oﬃce

NIES

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