ALOS and PALSAR Initial Calibration Status

Inhalt:
ALOS has been launched on January 24 2006 from Tanegashima Space Center, JAXA, to the sun synchronous orbit of 691.25 km height and 46 days recurrent cycle. PALSAR, one of the three sensors onboard ALOS, was first activated on UT 13.16.00, Feb 15 2006, for the following two and a half minutes in the night time over Mt. Fuji and the vicinities. As well as the first shot, the urgent image acquisition over the Leyte Island revealed the PALSAR's potential to detect the landslide area [3]. These acquisitions were purposed for confirmation of the sensor functionality. Commissioning phase will acquire the data systematically, and the follow-on initial calibration phase will acquire the data as well as the ground control data of the corner reflectors and the Amazon rain forest. Since the initial calibration has not been finished at this moment, we will introduce the current status of the sensor and its performance.