Proceedings Article | 4 November 2004
KEYWORDS: Polarization, Imaging systems, Sensors, Climate change, Aerosols, Satellites, Telescopes, Climatology, Calibration, Atmospheric particles
The concept study of new multi spectral imager has been showed. Multi spectral imager is the basic sensor for Earth remote sensing. The result of Global Imager (GLI) of Advanced Earth Observation Satellite -2 (ADEOS-2) showed us the various change of climate system. However, according to the progress of climate system change study, the reconsideration of observation channels is necessary. First, we studied the requirements of the next generation imager on the basis of GLI design considering the less observed parameters of the climate change. Then we found the necessity of the parameters related the human activities. Several parameters of each area, i.e., atmosphere, ocean, land, cryosphere, are selected. For the atmosphere, aerosol over land is emphasized. For the ocean, coastal change observation is proposed. For the land, advanced vegetation index is proposed. For the cryosphere, impurity of snow is emphasized. For the observation purposes, the proposed imager requirements are including the multi-angle polarization observation. And the resolution requirements of most channels are changed from 1 km to 250m. As the result of preliminary engineering study, the imager consists of a push broom imager for Visible and Near Infrared (VNIR) region, and a whisk broom imager for Shortwave Infrared (SWIR) and Thermal Infrared (TIR) region. Among the all channels, two channels, center wavelength 678 nm and 865 nm, are defined as multi-angle polarization observation channels. Each channel has fore, nadir, aft angles, also three polarization angles. The satellite orbit is about 800 km height sun-synchronous polar orbit to cover global area. The new sensor was named Second generation of Global Imager (SGLI). We are proposing to launch SGLI around 2010 on a satellite of Global Change Observation Mission (GCOM).