NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER ISSUE#7 JUL. 2010NIES

GOSJ ATPRO ECT
NEWSL ETTERISSUE #7
JUL. 2010

CONTENTSGREETINGSGOSAT Project~Thoughts On Present And Future01
NEWS
Field Campaign for Vicarious Calibration of “IBUKI in Railroad Valley, NV, USA 02
INTERVIEW
Remote Sensing Society of Japan Former President Ryutaro Tateishi 03
AHA OF THE MONTH”IBUKI”’s Observation Time and Location
05
DATA PRODUCTS UPDATE
06
ANNOUNCEMENT
06
CALENDAR
06
PUBLISHED PAPERS
06

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/
Photo 2. Mr. Hamazaki(right) explaining“IBUKI” to Dr. Rajendra K.
Pachauri, the chairmanof Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate
Change.

GREETINGSGOSAT PROJECT~THOUGHTS ON PRESENT AND FUTURE－ Mr. Takashi Hamazaki,
Director, Program Management and Integration Department,
Space Applications Mission Directorate,
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
Former JAXA GOSAT Project Manager

Time flies. It has already been one and half year since“IBUKI” was launched into space. “IBUKI” is keeping up its excellent
operation as world’s first and unique satellite dedicated toobserving global greenhouse gases. From the start of GOSAT
Project team in April 2003 until the launch in January 2009, it
was all about a series of challenges to overcome technical issues.
Among all those challenges, there was one issue that we had sucha difficult time to fix because we did not expect it to happen at all.
The issue was that even micro
vibrations of the instruments
and a little change of stiffnessof thin cables aboard thesatellite would affect theaccuracy of data. In addition,
there were some cases ofmalfunction of satellite
components as well as
manufacturing defects, andeach time they happened we
had to stay until late at nightor even until early morningfor emergency meetings andfact checking. If I think about
it now, they are all goodmemories.
Above all, however, what
Photo 1. “IBUKI” and Mr. Hamazaki,
I put most of my efforts into
the former JAXA GOSAT Project
manager.

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was the attempt to engage the “All IBUKI Team” - JAXA, NIES,
Ministry of the Environment (MOE), GOSAT Science Team,
manufacturers, and oversea institutes that support us with data
use - to work together. Each of these groups has its own senseof value and sense of speed. For example, NIES and GOSAT
Science Team value the accuracy of data the most while JAXA
values to present the results as early as possible, and MOE
values each decision to be reflected in government’s policy. We
spent numerous hours of discussion to reconcile them. I believethat the realization of “IBUKI” was possible because the passionsof everyone involved came together.
Now we receive requests for “IBUKI”’s data from countries
around the world. The contribution of “IBUKI” is talked about
in various international conferences. Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri,
the chairman of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) showed a great interest in “IBUKI” as well. When I
visited him to explain “IBUKI,” I was surprised and delighted
to be asked if he could take home the presentation board. I
hope “IBUKI”’s data are used for organizations such as IPCC
and become a universal gauge. The international race ofrealizing the first satellite dedicated to observe atmosphericgreenhouse gases ended with “IBUKI”’s windfall victory after
the European plan was canceled and OCO’s launch was failed.
However, there has been the second race started already.
NASA has initiated the development of OCO-2, and plans for
similar satellites are under consideration in Europe, Canada,
Korea, and China. Japan seems to have gotten a late start inthis race, but I am willing to put another effort into realizing
the next generation “IBUKI.”NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER ISSUE#7 JUL. 2010

NEWS

Field Campaign for Vicarious Calibration of “IBUKI”
in Railroad Valley, NV, USA- Tomoaki Tanaka, NIES Postdoctoral Fellow,

Center for Global Environmental Research (CGER), NIES

Photo 1. The base camp at RRV.

	Figure 1. The ﬁeld of view of TANSO-FTS(purple circle) and sites where the radiance ofthe ground was measured.

↑
500 m

1. Introduction
Atmospheric CO2 Observations from Space(ACOS)1, NASA Ames Research Center (AMES),Japan Aerospace Exploration Agencies(JAXA), and NIES carried out a field campaign
for vicarious calibration of the Greenhouse
Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT, “IBUKI”)
from 21st to 25th of June, 2010 in Railroad
Valley, NV, USA (RRV). The vicarious calibrationin this case refers to a method to calibrate
satellite’s radiance2 by comparing the valuesof radiance from the ground obtained by thesatellite sensor with the value obtained by aradiometer on the very ground at the sametime.
RRV is a 30 km-long and 20 km-wideplaya (a dried-up lake) located in eastcentral Nevada. Its land surface is flat andthe reflectance is almost homogeneous
spatially all across. RRV is appropriate forthis calibration campaign because its area isbigger than the field of view of Thermal And
Near infrared Sensor for carbon Observation
Fourier Transform Spectrometer (TANSO-FTS)
aboard “IBUKI.”↓

2. Observation
We set up a base camp in RRV (Photo

Figure 2. The geometry of ground observation 1 ACOS: Atmospheric CO2 Observations from Space(ACOS) is a group formed around the OCO Scienceat RRV.
Team, including the research members from NASA’
Table 1. Observation sites and “IBUKI”’s paths. s JPL, Caltech, and Colorado State University. Using“IBUKI”’s data, ACOS team has collaborated with
(H, M, L indicate the level of reﬂectance.)
the GOSAT project to develop and enhance theCO2 retrieval algorithm for both GOSAT and OCO-2
projects.
2 Radiance: One of the ways to measure intensityof light. The unit is W sr-1m-2µm. W (watt) is a unit ofpower. sr (steradian) is a unit of solid angle. µm (micro
meter) is a unit of length (in this case, of wavelengthof light).

2­­1), and installed a series of observation
instruments including meteorologicalinstrumentation and a whole-sky camera in
the surrounding area. The radiance on the
ground was measured at several different
sites within eight kilometers of the base camp
(Figure 1). Instruments used to measure
the radiance on the ground are FieldSpec
Portable Spectroradiometer (ASD Inc.). These
spectroradiometers can measure the radiancewithin the wavelength range of 350~2500
nm.
An observer measured the radiancefrom the ground in a manner as Figure 2
shows to figure out the radiance in TANSOFTS’s field of view. As the green lines show
in the Figure 2, the ground was measured
along the diagonal flow lines. The red dots
indicate the spots where the Spectralon
was measured. Spectralon is a reflectancereference board and was used to calibrate
the spectroradiometers.
The observation was carried out using two
spectroradiometers synchronized with the"IBUKI" path 36 on June 21 and June 24, andwith the path 37 on June 22 and june 25. On
June 23, “IBUKI” did not pass over RRV area,
however the observation on the ground was
3
conducted on the M03 site because ASTER
was observing the area at the time. Table 1
shows the location of observation sites and“IBUKI”’s corresponding paths.
3. In the End
During the RRV campaign, we shared the
responsibilities of setting up the camp andpreparing meals. It was not easy physicallybecause these tasks had to be done in theheat under the blazing sun. Even under suchcircumstance, each participant worked on
their duties energetically and did not holdback one’s effort to make RRV campaign a
success. I am honored that I could be a part ofit.

3 ASTER: Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission
and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) is an advanced
optical sensor comprised of 14 spectral channels
ranging from the visible to thermal infrared region.
It is a cooperative effort between NASA, Japan's
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI).
ASTER is on Terra satellite launched in December
1999 as part of NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS).

NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER ISSUE#7 JUL. 2010

INTERVIEW

Remote Sensing Society of Japan
Former President

RYUTARO TATEISHI

Professor,
Center for Environmental Remote Sensing (CEReS)
Chiba University“IBUKI” observes the Earth’s atmosphere fromspace using light. The technology to observe a physicalobject using electromagnetic wave as such is called remotesensing. Remote sensing has been used not only in thefield of scientific researches like “IBUKI”’s case, but also forpractical applications such as meteorology, agriculture,
forestry, fishery, disaster prevention, resource exploration,and mapping. In recent years, in addition to weather satellite
images, we can easily access high-resolution satellite images
just as in Google Earth. Remote sensing is becoming familiar
for us.

For July and August issues, NIES GOSAT PROJECTNEWSLETTER is going to bring you the interviews
with Remote Sensing Society of Japan (RSSJ)’s former
President Ryutaro Tateishi and current President Shuichi
Rokugawa. RSSJ is an academic society with the objectiveof advancement of remote sensing and its applications.
In this issue, we interviewed the former President
Tateishi, and asked to talk about what remote sensing
is. Former President Tateishi is a professor of The Center
for Environmental Remote Sensing (CEReS) at Chiba
University, specialized in extracting and monitoring
the land surface information from satellite images. He
currently works on the global or continental land cover
mapping and monitoring, the research on creating land
cover data of infrastructure in Japan, and organizing astore-and-share system for geospatial data. (Interviewer:
NIES GOSAT Project Tatsuya Yokota. May 27, 2010.)

Yokota (Y): Thank you for spending time with us today forthis interview. Professor Tateishi, you have served as the presidentof Remote Sensing Society of Japan for the past two years. Could
you share with us what the good and inferior aspects about
this organization are? Also, what are your expectations on thisorganization for the future?
Professor Tateishi (T): Well, the board members change quite
frequently, and this can be both good and bad for running theorganization. As you might know, the term for the board member
is only for two years. You spend the first year to get settled into theposition, and then you can spend the second year to do your job,
but then you already have to pass the position to someone else. The
fact that you have to be prepared to leave so soon is one downside.
However, if you look at the bright side of this, the organization
is more diverse. In other words, more people can serve as board
member, and have the chance to operate the organization. These
are the good and bad aspects. This kind of way of operation is also
reflected in that the organization is quite open. It is never like only
certain people control the operation of this organization.
Y: That is true. This organization seems to have members with arange of backgrounds. Perhaps because remote sensing is a method,and it is applied not only in the studies of the land, ocean, and air,
but also in other various fields of study. People from all of thesestudies participate in this academic society because remote sensing
is a method for their studies. May I ask what your thoughts are on
this?
T: Yes, that is true. The fact that a variety of fields of study are
involved is one of its characteristics.
In fact, I didn’t have a structured plan on what I was going to do
during these two years. I just worked on issues that came up in frontof me. Consequently, I worked on other tasks that needed to besorted out beforehand as well.
There is one example. It was when someone proposed that
there should be a textbook on remote sensing. As you may know,
there are some books on remote sensing, but none of them areappropriate for classroom use. So, we had a discussion on this idea.
Since the college courses consistof 15 classes, we decided to makea textbook that has 15 chapters. I
have actually asked you to writea part of this book, too. For the
first chapter of this book, I had todefine what remote sensing is. I
was assigned to write this part,but the book was going to have
Remote Sensing Society of Japanas the editorial body. So, I asked theboard members for opinions on
my version of the definition, and I
got so many opinions. This mademe realize that which area of study
remote sensing should belong to
had not been decided yet.
If you look at oversea materials, you often see expressions such as“Remote sensing is science and technology which…” In other words,
it explains that remote sensing is science as such and technology
as such. If it is translated into Japanese, the latter half sounds
natural, but doesn’t the first half sound a little bit off? In Japanese,
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NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER ISSUE#7 JUL. 2010

the translation for the word science, -kagaku- is used when
there is something to be pursued logically or for something
like pursuit of a truth. I felt like it is not appropriate to define
remote sensing as one of areas of study in science.
On the other hand, there is no independent category forremote sensing in the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research.1
Then again, one board member brought up a question; isit possible to say “remote sensing studies?” Responding tothis, as I reported in today’s general meeting, we establishedthe “Area of Study Working Group.” For the next year, theworking group is going to reexamine what remote sensing as
an area of study can be. It all started because we were making
a textbook. We thought this is a good chance to really think
about this. This is one example of how I worked on issues as
they arose.
Y: Remote sensing covers a wide range of subjects. Among
all, which subject is your specialty?
T: Well, I received my doctoral degree from Institute ofIndustrial Science, the University of Tokyo, for studying
three-dimensional visualization of elevation data, in otherwords, methods of visualizing the geospatial data. At thattime, I used to use the satellite images as patterns of theland surface. After that, I worked on research in classificationand correction for land use and land cover regarding dataprocessing, mainly for satellite data. What led to my current
research was that I was involved in one research for Grants-inAid for Scientific Research on Priority Areas in 1980s.
Y: Wasn’t there ‘remote sensing’ as one of priority areas then?
T: Right. That is when I met mapping, including global land
cover, and became interested in such global subjects. After
that, in 1990s, I was a chairman of a working group called
Global Environmental Databases, one of 50+ working groups
of International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote
Sensing (ISPRS). It was a working group on how to gather andintegrate various global data to utilize them. I gained a greatinterest in global data in addition to my preexisting interestin global land cover. In 2000s, Geographical Survey Institute(current Geospatial Information Authority) started up the
Global Map project, and I was invited to one of its working
groups on creating land cover data sets. I have served as achairman there up to the present. So, for now, producing dataon land cover and on forest cover percentage for the Global
Map take up about 60 percent of my research.
Y: Is this a plan to make a map of forest cover percentage andland cover of not only Japan but also of whole world?
T: Yes, the output is going to be global, but the process is2
continent by continent. We are planning to use MODIS data.

"I give it high marks for the great significance it carries
by being ahead of the world producing CO2 data anddistributing them."
Y: What is your current impression on GOSAT? Do you haveany suggestion for GOSAT Project?
T: In fact, my focus of research is land, and I am not very
familiar with atmosphere or greenhouse gases. So, when
GOSAT Project was formed and “IBUKI” was launched, I did
not have much background information or did not knowsuch plan was in works. I was actually a little surprised thatJapan was going that far in this field. I cannot make technicalcomments, but I give it high marks for the great significanceit carries by being ahead of the world producing CO2 data anddistributing them. I hear that there are some issues such as
noises that need to be removed, but this attempt to work on
global mapping of greenhouse gases is a project that Japan
should be proud of. GOSAT is the only one in the world that is
acquiring this type of satellite data.
Y: Well? Thank you. It is true that “IBUKI” (GOSAT) is the only
satellite that is mainly dedicated to this purpose. There areresearchers in the world who are working towards similargoals, but you might be able to say we are ahead of the world
at the moment.
T: In my impression, I see you succeeded half way alreadyjust because of that. There might be a room for improvement
for the data quality, but I have a very high regard for the
project. I also hope that you distribute data that we can use.
To remove the aerosol, you don’t necessarily have to do it
elegantly. If you have aerosol data from somewhere else, I
think it is reasonable for you to use it, too. I understand yourreal goal is to create a global mapping, but if the reliable data
are only available in certain parts, that is ok, too. If the data are
available in public already, I hope you validate the data, anddisclose information on the reliability of the data, and keep up
the great effort.
Y: Thank you for your opinion.
T: It is a project that deserves ‘congratulations!’.
Y: Thank you very much for today.
T: It's my pleasure.

1 Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research: Grants awarded to promote
Japan’s creative and pioneering research raging from the humanities andsocial sciences to the natural sciences, offered by Ministry of Education,
Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and Japan Society for the
Promotion of Science.
2 MODIS: Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer. An opticalsensor instrument developed by NASA that has 36 channels fromvisible to infrared on board Terra (launched on 1999) and Aqua satellite(launched on 2002) of NASA Earth Observing System (EOS).

4­­NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER ISSUE#7 JUL. 2010

AHA! OF THE MONTH”IBUKI”ʼs Observation Time and Location- Hiroshi Watanabe, NIES GOSAT Project Office Manager“IBUKI” goes around the globe in a “sun-synchronous subrecurrent” orbit in order to observe each point at the same time of a
day to acquire data under the same condition. In a sun-synchronous
orbit, the plane of a satellite’s orbit turns 360 degrees during
the period of revolution of the Earth. In other words, the spatial
relationship between the plane of a satellite’s orbit and the sunlightare fixed all the time. “IBUKI” is also set to pass the descending node
- the point at which the satellite nadir crosses the Equator movingfrom North to South - always at around 1PM local mean time. In a
sub-recurrent orbit, a satellite repeats almost the same orbit at aconstant frequency. “IBUKI” makes one round in 98 minutes and after
three days of 44 rounds, “IBUKI” is back to the original orbit. Each
Figure 1. Schematic illustration of how GOSAT makes observations.
orbit is called “path” and numbered from 1 to 44 so that the number
increases as the path goes west. “IBUKI” orbits at the distance of666 km from the Earth surface. It is farther than International Space
Station(ISS) (at about 400 km from the Earth) and much closer
than the satellites in geostationary orbit such as Multi-functional
Transport Satellite (MTSAT) and Geostationary Meteorological
Satellites (GMS)(at approximately 36,000 km).
The observation of greenhouse gases by “IBUKI” covers theentire globe evenly (though more frequently at high latitude). Eachmeasurement by Thermal And Near infrared Sensor for carbon
Observations - Fourier Transform Spectrometer (TANSO-FTS)
targets the ground inside a circle of 10 km in diameter (Figure 1).
Normally, “IBUKI” observes five points as a set, tilting the sensor
little by little in a direction at a right angle to the orbit (5-point
observation mode). Each observation point is called standard meshpoint. In oceanic regions, the sun reflection is low, and the sensor
Figure 2. “IBUKI”’s observation points near Japan(descending).
often targets the areas of sun’s mirror reflection on the ocean called
sun glint. An example of 5-point observation and sun glint near
Japan (descending, daytime) is shown in Figure 2. There are 56,000
observation points if the entire globe is observed on the 5-point
observation mode (Figure 3). Points observed during the daytime(hours of sunlight) are 28,000. For a point to be used for the retrievalof greenhouse gases, the signals of reflection at the point have to
be strong enough and the point should not have any cloud. Out of
all those points, only a few percent survive. However, that number
is still larger than 200 points of pre-existing ground observationsites (Figure 4). Above all, “IBUKI” has an advantage to measure in
the regions of world where there were no ground observation sites
at all. For information on the relationship between observation Figure 3. All the observation points of “IBUKI” when operating in 5-point
dates and paths as well as standard mesh points, please refer to observation mode (for three days, 44 rounds).
the entry named “The explanation of the “GOSAT Path Calendar” ishere.” under “Technical Information” tab on the NIES GOSAT ProjectWebsite.
http://www.gosat.nies.go.jp/eng/technology/technology.htm
Additionally, more details of observational status (and schedule)
can be found at “Observational Information” under “Selection Menu”
after logging in at GOSAT User Interface Gateway.
Another sensor aboard ”IBUKI,” TANSO - Cloud and Aerosol Imager(TANSO-CAI) observes the condition of land surface and clouds
during the daytime (hours of sunlight). Its Band 1 to 3 observe theareas of 1000 km wide surrounding satellite nadir point at a spatial
resolution of 500 m. Band 4 observes the areas of 750 km at a spatial
Figure 4. Ground observation sites. (Source: World Data Center for
resolution of 1500 m.
Greenhouse Gases (WDCGG))

5­­NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER ISSUE#7 JUL. 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 themonth of June 2010. Continued from
May, FTS L1B data were processed
and released as V100100; and CAI
L1B, L1B+, and L2 cloud flag were
processed and released as V00.90.
We have been working on the quality
check process for the FTS L2 SWIR
CO2 and CH4 column amounts data,
and the data for the month of March
was released along with “Important
Notice.” The observation period
between March 1 and March 16 areavailable for search and download
as V00.80, and between March 16
and March 31 as V00.90. “Important
Notice” can be found on “Important Notices on monthly FTS L2 SWIR Product” page. Please read carefully before using the product.
(GUIG/ Product & Service/ User Authentication/ Selection Menu/ Important Notices on monthly FTS L2 SWIR Product) FTS L2 SWIR data
observed after April 2010, as well as during August, September, and October 2009 are planned to be released as soon as possible. The
number of registered users reached 826 as of July 9, 2010.

ANNOUNCEMENTThe Third Research Announcement to Start Soon!

The GOSAT Project will organize the third Research
Announcement (RA) in late August 2010. Eligible applicants
are independent researchers or researchers affiliated withresearch institutions, educational organizations, government
institutions, or private companies that aim to use the GOSAT
data for non-profit and peaceful purposes. Open to applicantsof all nationalities. Even if you have been selected as the principal investigator (PI) at
the first or the second RA, you are encouraged to apply for the third RA with a different
research theme. Details of the third RA will be available on our homepage on therelease date. For those who would like to have better understanding of what the RA is,
please refer to the first and the second RA at the website below.
Information on the First and the Second RA:
http://www.gosat.nies.go.jp/eng/proposal/proposal.htm

PUBLISHED PAPERS
Name of Journal: Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (Volume 3, Number 4, July 2010,
pages 909-932)
Title: The inter-comparison of major satellite aerosol retrieval algorithms using simulated
intensity and polarization characteristics of reflected light
Authors: A. A. Kokhanovsky, J. L. Deuzé, D. J. Diner, O. Dubovik, F. Ducos, C. Emde, M. J. Garay,
R. G. Grainger, A. Heckel, M. Herman, I. L. Katsev, J. Keller, R. Levy, P. R. J. North, A. S. Prikhach,V. V. Rozanov, A. M. Sayer, Y. Ota, D. Tanré, G. E. Thomas, and E. P. Zege

NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTERCALENDAR
2010/08/09-12
Participation at the International
Society for Photogrammetry andRemote Sensing (ISPRS) Technical
Comission VIII Symposium held in
Kyoto, Japan.
2010/08/25
GOSAT Project is hosting "TheGreenhouse Gases Observation fromSpace Symposium" in Tokyo, Japan.
2010/Late August
Release of the third Research
Announcement.
2010/09/05-09
Participation at the 2010 Meetingof Japanese Federation of Statistical
Science Associations (Japan StatisticalSociety the 78th Meeting) held inTokyo, Japan.
2010/09/07-11
Participation at the 21st International
Conference on High Resolution
Molecular SpectroscopyPOZNAN2010 held in Poznań, Poland.
Issued On : 2010.08.03

ISSUE #7 JUL. 2010edited and published by : NIES GOSAT Project Oﬃce

NIES

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