Japanese perspective on GIIPSY Jinro Ukita (Chiba University) ALOS (Advanced Land Observation System) provides timely contribution from Japan to GIIPSY, launched on Jan 24 2006 for 3-5 yr mission and just became operational with three sensors PRISM – Panchromatic radiometer (0.52-0.77mm) with 2.5 m resolution and 75km/35km (nadir/triplet only) swath for digital surface mapping AVNIR-2 – Advanced visible and near IR radiometers in 4 bands (0.42-0.89mm) with 10m resolution and 75km swath PALSAR – L-band SAR with 7-44m, 14-88m and 100m resolution (single, dual, polarimatric) and 40-70km and 250-350km (single and ScanSAR) swath in 4 sensor modes As regarding the GIIPSY and the IPY period, the most timely and significant contribution from Japan would be our satellite ALOS. 2006 AGU Fall Meeting

Summary table for PALSAR default modes Mode Name Pol Off-nadir angle Pass Coverage Period Obs frequency Fine beam Single HH 34.3 Ascend. Global Dec-Feb 1-2 per yr Dual HH, HV May-Sep 1-4 per yr Polari- matric 21.5 Regional Mar-May 2 per 2yr ScanSAR 20.1-36.5 Descend. Thru yr 1 per yr 8 per yr Observational schedule with specific dates during the IPY period is available at www.eorc.jaxa.jp/ALOS/index.htm

Acquisition plan for ascending during IPY(v10/2006) Cycle Starting date Polarization 8 5-Dec-06 HH 9 20-Jan-07 10 7-Mar-07 Polarimetry 11 22-Apr-07 Polarimatric 12 7-Jun-07 Dual 13 23-Jul-07 14 7-Sep-07 15 23-Oct-07 Unassigned 16 8-Dec-07 17 23-Jan-08 18 9-Mar-08 19 24-Apr-08 20 9-Jun-08 21 25-Jul-08 22 9-Sep-08 23 25-Oct-08 24 10-Dec-08 25 25-Jan-09 26 12-Mar-09 27 27-Apr-09 Acquisition plan for ascending during IPY(v10/2006) Light: Greenland Dark: Antarctic Red : Both Cycle 8 (Dec 5 2006 – Jan 2007) Greenland? Based on JAXA’s website at www.eorc.jaxa.jp/ALOS/index.htm

Current PIs on ALOS mission listed under the cryosphere (can be contact points) M. Drinkwater (ESTEC) Thin winter and summer ice in the Antarctic and Arctic D. Flett (CIS) Regional ice monitoring R. Forster (U of Utah) Arctic seasonal snow melt as detected R. Kwok (JPL) Sea ice A. Luckman (U of Wales) Svalbard glaciers R. Massom (Antarctic CRC) Fast-ice and polynyas in East Antarctica K. McDonald (JPL) Boreal landscape freeze/thaw dynamics E. Rignot (JPL) Ice sheet flow in Antarctica and Greenland J. Shi (UCSB) Snow properties K.Shum (Ohio) Filchner-Ronne ice shelf L. C. Smith UCLA) Arctic river systems C. Tsatsoulis (Kansas) Fram Strait sea ice N. Young (Antarctic CRC) Ice shelves and glaciers in East Antarctica M. Aniya (U of Tsukuba) Patagonia icefield Cho (Tokai U) Okhotsk Sea H. Wakabayashi (Nihon U) Okhotsk sea ice

Possible issues to discuss and action items Ways to make requests and feedback from the GIIPSY community to JAXA – established channel through the current PIs? Maybe speak up for un-assigned mode Boundary regions, e.g. 60 deg N Arctic Ocean IPY Legacy (e.g. Greenland during Cycle 26-7) Current PIs and future AOs – (2nd AO with Feb 15 deadline but only for ALOS Data Node Asia/Russia) Lack and absence of direct involvement by Japanese scientists The IPY provides an opportunity to build remote sensing cryosphere obs community in Japan for the benefits of GIIPSY and beyond – so what to do?