NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER ISSUE#19 JUL. 2011

ISSUE # 19
JULY 2011

CONTENTS
NEWSLevel­3­CAI­Global­Reflectance­Distribution­Released­to­General­Users­­­­­­­01
Annual­Railroad­Valley­Vicarious­Calibration­Campaign

02

Report­:­NIES­Open­Symposium­2011­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­03
DATA PRODUCT UPDATE
Data­Processing­Status­Update­from­GOSAT­Project­Office­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­04
NEWS

いぶきOn­the­Energy­Saving­Action­at­the­NIES­GOSAT­Project­and­the­Effect­on­the­Data­Product­Distribution­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­04

IBUKI

NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER
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.

IMAGE OF THE MONTHTyphoon­Ma-on­-­Japan­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­05
ANNOUNCEMENT05

CALENDAR05

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

NEWS Level 3 CAI Global Reflectance Distribution (Clear-sky) Released to General Users-­Nobuyuki­Kikuchi,­Specialist,­NIES­GOSAT­Project­Office
The NIES GOSAT Project has
released a new product, the Level 3 CAI
global reflectance distribution (clear-sky)on June 23, 2011. The Level 3 CAI global
reflectance distribution data product isprocessed by collecting the image data withminimum reflectance from the Cloud andAerosol Imager (TANSO-CAI)’s Level 1B datafor 30 days. The product shows the surfaceof the globe clear of clouds in most areas.
The Level 3 CAI product is produced every
three days (one recurrence) because "IBUKI"
observes the whole globe in three days.
The image shown below is the Level

3 CAI global reflectance distribution data
product processed from the CAI radiancedata acquired between March 7, 2011 andApril 5, 2011. The surface in the tropics
where it is usually covered in the clouds isvisible. There can be spotted traces of snow
in the high latitude area and the Himalayasin the northern hemisphere. In the southernhemisphere, Antarctica is visible in thehigher latitude area. Since the areas where
the solar altitude is less than 20 degrees
are eliminated, the data seem broken in
the edges in the high latitude areas in bothhemispheres. Over the ocean, there are1­­tilted vertical bright streaks aligned near theequator. They are the mirror reflection ofsunlight on the sea surface called sun-glint.
They appear along the inclined orbit path of"IBUKI."The Level 3 CAI global reflectance
distribution data product contains
reflectance data of ground and oceanseparately. Along the coastlines, the data
pixels are detected as both the groundand ocean. The values of such areas arecalculated by dividing the sums by two.

NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER ISSUE#19 JULY 2011

Photo­ 1.­ Shuji­ Kawakami­ of­ JAXA­ (right),­
Makoto­ Inoue­ of­ NIES­ (left)­ and­ the­ baby­
carriage­ are­ hard­ at­ work­ in­ the­ desert.­ (As­opposed­to­the­40 °C­sunbaked­desert­in­the­front,­ the­ mountains­ in­ the­ back­ are­ snowcapped.)­Photographed­by­Akihiko­Kuze.

NEWSAnnual Railroad Valley Vicarious Calibration Campaign-­Akihiko­Kuze,­Satellite­Applications­and­Promotion­Center,­Japan­Aerospace­Exploration­Agency
The third vicarious calibration
campaign for GOSAT was carried out fromJune 18 to June 26, 2011 in collaboration withthe American ACOS team*1 in Railroad Valleyof view as TANSO-FTS's 10 km. We overcame
this challenge by calibrating the radiance andbidirectional reflectance distribution function(BRDF), using TANSO-CAI and MODIS*2 that

(RRV), Nev., USA.
The goals of this campaign are 1) toevaluate the sensitivity degradation ofthe sensors installed on GOSAT, Fourier
Transform Spectrometer ( TANSO-FTS)
and Cloud and Aerosol Imager (TANSOCAI) in long-term orbit, and 2) to makean in-depth measurement of the physicalquantities necessary for radiative transfer
calculations and to improve its accuracy. The
measurement of atmospheric constituentsby differential optical absorption observationis theoretically possible even with sensitivity
degradation of instruments. However, in a
mission like GOSAT, which has to talk about
1% precision, the accuracy of absolutesensitivity is also significant. I will let theresearch papers explain the analysis results,
and here I would like to introduce you to thebeauty of RRV.
This campaign was started with a modest
hope to get results in the long run. However,in reality, we have been making progress
every year. Our challenge for the first year
was to make a vicarious calibration campaign
possible with such a large instantaneous field

have higher spatial resolutions. However, now
it left us with new issues; pointing of TANSOFTS has offset, and two hours of walking
in the desert carrying a PC and a heavy
spectrometer on one's shoulder was too muchwork for us middle aged members. So, for thesecond year, we stared at the CAM imagery
for the preceding few months to estimate
the offset errors, and made adjustments tothe planned values of pointing angles. Also,
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory broughta sturdy twin-baby carriage customized for*1*2

Moderate­ Resolution­ Imaging­ Spectroradiometer­(MODIS)­is­an­optical­sensor­instrument­developed­by­NASA­desert, which reduced the physical work ofmeasurer and improved the accuracy of theground radiance measurement. By the thirdyear, we have grown greedy and included theobservations for Thermal Infrared calibration(both day and night time), the measurementof spectral radiance by airplanes, and insitu measurement of CO2/CH4. The U.S. teamin particular has strengthened its systemeach year. For this year, groups from the JPL,
NASA Ames Research Center, Colorado StateUniversity, and the University of Wisconsin
participated in the campaign. During thecampaign, there was a series of observations
with three airplanes: a high-altitude aircraft,ER-2 carrying three sensors, an unmanned
aircraft system, SIERRA *3 that measuresvertical profile, and an ex-battle plane Alphathat­has­36­channels­from­visible­to­infrared­on­board­Terra­(launched­on­1999)­and­Aqua­satellite­(launched­on­2002)­of­*3

NASA­Earth­Observing­System­(EOS).

Aircraft­(SIERRA)

Sensor­ Integrated­ Environmental­ Remote­ Research­

Atmospheric­CO2­Observations­from­Space­(ACOS)­is­a­group­formed­around­the­OCO­Science­Team,­including­the­ research­ members­ from­ NASA's­ JPL,­ Caltech,­ and­Colorado­State­University.­Using­"IBUKI"'s­data,­ACOS­team­has­collaborated­with­the­GOSAT­project­to­develop­and­enhance­the­CO2­retrieval­algorithm­for­both­GOSAT­and­OCO2­projects.

Photo 2. The team has grown to 26 members this year. (The master of desert,' Dr. Mark
Helmlinger­is­in­the­center­of­back­row­wearing­a­white­t-shirt.­The­author­is­in­the­center­of­front­row­wearing­a­long­sleeve­white­shirt.)­Photograph­courtesy­of­the­author.

2­­NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER ISSUE#19 JULY 2011

Jet that can make spiral flights. It was an exciting "air show." We to take some soil sample for mass spectrometry. There is even acollected an ample stock of measurement items that the radiative

natural hot-spring oasis near-by, and this place for me is the world's

transfer maniacs would drool over: the ground radiance, BRDF heritage. In case when it is actually named as a World Heritage site
(TANSO-FTS, TANSO-CAI), optical thickness of aerosols, CO2/CH4'sand I start my second career as its guide, I need to explore further

ground-surface, vertical, and in-plane profiles, radio sonde's vertical into the mystery of RRV. Praying for the long life of GOSAT andprofiles of water vapor, temperature, and air pressure.
'the master of desert,' Mark Helmlinger (Sensors & Instruments
I also find it exciting that all RRV members including a 20 year- Department, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems), I left my beold student and a veteran almost 50 years their senior spend time loved RRV this year.
together in the desert. We take turns in preparing meals. It is regretfulthat the GOSAT team made little improvements to the menu sincelast year, and we could only serve boil-in-the-bag curry, chirashi
sushi (bowl of sushi rice topped with variety of ingredients), andfrozen konjac fruit jelly. Next time, I hope to bring the extraordinary
world of Japanese cuisine to RRV (with limited time and fire). The
magic of RRV is that after spending long hours together, we run outof small talks and become close enough to complain and whine,which in fact generates a productive discussion on data processing
for the next day. The JPL reserved us a camper with a toilet, shower,
and refrigerator, but the closest gas station is more than 100 km
away and refueling was not an easy task. Turning on the engine alsointerferes with the CO2 observation. So, how to live with renewableenergy, which is a timely issue, is another challenge we work on.
We held out till the end of campaign with the solar energy and its
cloudy-day and nighttime complement, wind energy, but we had tobring water everyday from hotel room in a near-by town.
Although the desert is far from any town, there is an unexpected
diurnal variation of CO2 and CH4 concentrations. It has beensuspected that there is an emission source in the vicinity. This year,Photo­3.­The­base­camp­and­sky­full­of­stars­(the­Plow­is­visible).­­astrobiologists and volcano specialists participated in the campaign
Photographed­by­JAXA­Masataka­Naito.

NEWSReport : NIES Open Symposium 2011-­Nobuyuki­Kikuchi,­Specialist,­
NIES­GOSAT­Project­Office

NIES­Open­Symposium­
2011.­Photographed­by­Nobuyuki­ Kikuchi­ on­June­25,­2011­at­the­Silk­
Hall­in­Kyoto,­Japan..

-­Isamu­Morino,­Senior­Researcher,-­Makoto­Inoue,­Research­Associate,
Center­for­Global­Environmental­Research,­NIESThe National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES)
hosted two open symposia, on June 18, 2011 at the Yomiuri Hallin Tokyo, and on June 25, 2011 at the Silk Hall in Kyoto, Japan.
As many as 546 people visited the symposium in Tokyo and 224
people visited the symposium in Kyoto. NIES GOSAT Projectgave a poster presentation at these symposia. We showed
the seasonal variation of CO2 and CH4 using the spatial andlatitudinal distribution maps of CO2 and CH4. We also showeda CO2 emission and absorption map that we are preparing fordistribution. I would like to introduce some of the questions fromthe visitors. 1) Does CO2 stay in the bottom because it is heavier
than the air? 2) Why is there a lot of CO2 emission in August inthe Amazon? 3) If the greenhouse gases absorb the infrared,
why does it now make the temperature go down? Do they notalso absorb the sunlight and less light reaches the ground?
These are all very difficult questions but we gave the following
explanations: 1) In the lower layer called troposphere, the air

is always being stirred, so it does not mean CO2 concentration
is higher just because it is near the bottom of atmosphere.
However, when the photosynthesis of vegetation is active, theconcentration can become lower as it gets closer to the surface.
2) It is because of the dry season and the photosynthesis ofvegetation is limited. This causes emission from the vegetation
to surpass its absorption. 3) The infrared of sunlight is in thewavelength range between 0.7 µm and 4µm, and the infrared
that releases the Earth's heat out to the space is between 3 µm
and 100 µm. CO2 absorbs the infrared of wavelength between 12µm and 18 µm, so it interferes only with the infrared that goesout to the space, but not with the infrared between 0.7 µm and4µm that reaches from the sun.
We hope to let the outcome of "IBUKI" research known tomore people whenever there is an opportunity. We are happy toanswer your questions.

3­­

NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER ISSUE#19 JULY 2011

DATA PRODUCTS UPDATE

Data Processing status uPDate from gosat Project office- Fumie Kawazoe, Specialist, NIES GOSAT Project Office

As of July 14, 2011

Observation Period and Versions of Publicly Released Data

Versions and Approx. Numbersof Released Data

FTS L1BFTS L2 CO2 column amount (SWIR)●050050●080080●100100●110110●128128●130130

143700 scenes80200 scenes
210500 scenes
125700 scenes
74200 scenes
62800 scenes● 00.50● 00.80● 00.90● 01.10● 01.20● 01.30● 01.40● 01.5032500 scans
16700 scans
38600 scans
26000 scans
14800 scans
46900 scans
28300 scans
1800 scans●00.50●00.80●00.90●01.10●01.20●01.30%#'$●01.40●01.5035200 scans
23700 scans
43300 scans
24300 scans
13400 scans
44200 scans
27700 scans
1700 scans%#($FTS L2 CH4 column amount (SWIR)FTS L3 CO2 distribution (SWIR)FTS L3 CH4 distribution (SWIR)CAI L1B!%#"$CAI L1B+

CAI L2 cloud ﬂag●01.10●01.20●01.30●01.31●01.408 months
3 months
7 months
1 month
4 months●01.10●01.20●01.30●01.31●01.408 months
3 months
7 months
1 month
4 months●00.50●00.80●00.90●00.91●00.92117200 frames
16300 frames
114000 frames
66500 frames
38900 frames●00.50●00.80●00.90●00.91●00.9244800 frames
16300 frames
114000 frames
66000 frames
19400 frames●00.10●00.80●00.90●00.91●00.92117200 frames
16300 frames
114000 frames
66500 frames
37600frames●00.50●00.80●00.90●00.91●00.9299 recurrences
36 recurrences
253 recurrences
144 recurrences
19 recurrences●00.91●00.9249 recurrences
28 recurrences!%#&$

CAI L3 global radiance

CAI L3 global reﬂectance!"#"$2009/4

2009/6

2009/8

2009/10

2009/122010/2

2010/4

2010/6

2010/8

2010/102010/122011/2

2011/4

2011/6

2011/8

2011/10Month and Year of Observation

Continued­from­last­month,­we­have­been­processing­and­ information­on­this­new­data­product,­please­refer­to­the­"Product­
releasing­the­V130.130­and­V128.128­for­the­FTS­L1B,­V00.92­for­the­ Format­Descriptions"­and­"Important­Notes­at­Releasing"­-­V00.91/
CAI­L1B,­L1B+,­L2­cloud­flag,­and­L3­global­radiance­data­products.­ V00.92­ (L3­ reflectance­ distribution)­ under­ "ATBD,­ Product­ Format­
We­ have­ been­ processing­ the­ V01.50­ for­ the­ FTS­ L2­ CO2­ and­ CH4­ Descriptions,­Product­Description,­Results­of­Validation"­on­the­GOSAT­
column­amounts­(SWIR)­data­product­after­April­19,­2011,­and­started­ User­Interface­Gateway­(https://data.gosat.nies.go.jp).­Please­also­have­to­release­this­version­this­month.­Also,­we­have­just­released­a­new­ a­look­at­the­article,­"CAI­L3­Global­Reflectance­Distribution­(clear-sky)­product,­CAI­L3­global­reflectance­distribution­(clear-sky).­The­version­ Released­to­General­Users"­on­the­page­1­of­this­issue.­
The­number­of­registered­users­is­1073­as­of­July­14,­2011.

numbers­ are­ V00.91­ and­ V00.92.­ The­ data­ products­ are­ processed­using­the­data­acquired­after­October­26,­2010.­For­more­detailed­NEWS

On the Energy Saving Action at the NIES GOSAT Project
and the Effect on the Data Product Distribution.
- Hiroshi Watanabe, NIES GOSAT Project Office Manager(article as of July 19) Due to theearthquake on March 11, 2011 and thesubsequent nuclear power plant accident
in Fukushima, the power supply shortage
during this summer is expected in Japan,
especially in the service area of the Tokyo
Electric Power Company. In response tothe situation, the National Institute forEnvironmental Studies (NIES) decided toreduce the electricity consumption to
20% of 5600 kW, the contracted electricity
s er v ice. T he NIE S GOSAT Proje c t has
made a careful consideration as to how
to reduce the power usage in order tocooperate in NIES' energy saving action
while making the effect on the data user's
inconvenience minimal. In addition to theNIES' efforts to make cuts in the daily life
electricity consumption (including the airconditioning), and shutdown of the NIES'
supercomputer (NIES S/C) (relatively highcapacity, shared among multiple groups
at NIES) in July, the NIES GOSAT Project isplanning to stop the GOSAT Data Handling
Facilit y (GOSAT DHF) that consumes
electricity about 10% of NIES S/C from
August 12 to August 18. For this reason,
the data distribution service, GOSAT User4­­

Inter face Gateway will be unavailable
during above-mentioned dates. Due to theshutdown of NIES S/C, the data processingof CO2 and CH4 Level 2 data products has
been stopped until the end of July. We
are working to restart data processingin the last week of July with a back up
plan, but even after the restart, it is likelythat data distribution will be delayed
due to the shutdown of GOSAT DHF. We
deeply apologize for the inconvenience,
and appreciate your understanding andconsideration for the power supply plightafter the earthquake.

NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER ISSUE#19 JULY 2011

IMAGES OF THE MONTH

tyPhoon ma-on- jaPan"IBUKI" captured a powerful
typhoon, Ma-on, moving from thesouthern sea of Shikoku Island toKyusyu Island in Japan. The images
are made from the data acquiredby an imaging sensor installedon "IBUKI," the Cloud and Aerosol
Imager (TANSO-CAI) on (top) July18, 2011 at around 03:56 (UTC) and(bottom) July 19, 2011 at around
04:28 (UTC).

ANNOUNCEMENTNIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER
welcomes letters from our readers.

We appreciate your opinions, suchas "I want to read articles on ...,""...
was really interesting." etc. We also
appreciate opinions or contributions
from people involved in the GOSAT

Project. Please feel free to contact :gosat_newsletter@nies.go.jp. Thankyou for supporting the newsletter.

CALENDAR
2011/08/29 - 2011/09/02
Participating in the 22nd Colloquimo n Hi gh - re s o lu ti o n M o l e cular
Spectroscopy held in Dijon, France.

NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTERISSUE #19 JULY 2011

Issued­On­:­2011.08.02

edited and published by : NIES GOSAT Project Oﬃce

Revised­On­:­2011.11.28

You can download this newsletter here:
URL : http://www.gosat.nies.go.jp/eng/newsletter/top.htmemail : gosat̲newsletter@nies.go.jp

いぶきIBUKINIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER

website : http://www.gosat.nies.go.jp/eng/newsletter/top.htm

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