Status of ADEOS mission sensors

Abstract The main objectives of the Advanced Earth Observation Satellite (ADEOS) are to contribute to global observation of environmental change with the international community as well as to establish future platform technologies. To achieve these objective, ADEOS will carry two core sensors developed by NASDA, the Ocean Color and Temperature Scanner (OCTS) and the Advanced Visible and Near-Infrared Radiometer (AVNIR), and six Announcement of Opportunity (AO) sensors, the Interferometric Monitor for Greenhouse Gases (IMG) provided by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry of Japan, the Improved Limb Atmospheric Spectrometer (ILAS) and the Retroreflector In Space (RIS) provided by the Environment Agency of Japan, the NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) and the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) provided by NASA, and the Polarization and Directionality of the Earth's Reflectances (POLDER) provided by CNES. ADEOS, for which basic design began last summer, is scheduled to be launched into sun synchronous orbit from Tanegashima Space Center by H-II rocket in early 1995. The interface coordination between ADEOS and mission sensors was the most important topic of this international cooperative project. This paper reports the status of the ADEOS mission sensors from the viewpoint of the interface coordination, and addresses the outline and development status of NASDA core sensors.