ALOS (Advanced Land Observation Satellite) is used for cartography,
regional observation, disaster monitoring, and resource surveying.
ALOS has three remote-sensing instruments:
- the Panchromatic Remote-sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping (PRISM) for digital
elevation mapping with 2.5 meter resolution,
- the Advanced Visible and Near Infrared Radiometer type 2 (AVNIR-2) for precise land
coverage observation with 10 meter resolution, and
- the Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR) for day-and-night and
all-weather land observation.
ALOS transmitts its data via the DRTS (Kodama) satellite.
The ALOS was launched by an H-2A-2022 launch
vehicle from the Tanegashima Space Center. ALOS as been given the nickname Daichi.
Five minutes after spacecraft separation, ALOS began to unfurl its 72-foot solar array
that will provide electrical power to the craft throughout its mission. Six cameras are
on-board to visually verify the correct deployment of the solar panel and various
instrument antennas.
ALOS lost all power on 22. April 2011, thus ending the mission. The radar component was replaced by ALOS 2 (Daichi 2) in 2014 and the optical follow-on was to be ALOS 3 (Daichi 3), which was loast in a launch failure.
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