WMO OSCAR | Details for Instrument PALSAR-2

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Instrument: PALSAR-2

Instrument details

Acronym	PALSAR-2
Full name	Phased-Array L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar - 2
Purpose	High-resolution all-weather soil moisture and ocean surface features observation
Short description	L-band SAR, frequency 1.27 GHz, multi-polarisation and variable pointing/resolution [see detailed characteristics below]
Background	Evolution of PALSAR on ALOS
Scanning Technique	Side-looking, 7.3-58.8° off-nadir, swath 25 to 350 km, depending on operation mode
Resolution	1 to 100 m, depending on operation mode
Coverage / Cycle	Global coverage in minimum 2 weeks (gapless cover in 42 or 56 days by stripmap mode), depending on operation mode (duty cycle 30 min/orbit)
Mass	658 kg	Power	5000 W	Data Rate	800 Mbps

Providing Agency	JAXA
Instrument Maturity	Backed by strong heritage
Utilization Period:	2014 to 2025
Last update:	2021-08-30

Detailed characteristics

Operation mode	Resolution	Swath	Polarisations	Incidence angle
Spotlight	1-3 m	25 km	HH or VV	8-70°
Stripmap(ultra-fine)	3 m	50 km	HH or VV or HH/HV or VV/VH	8-70°
Stripmap(high-sensitive)	6 m	50 km	HH or VV or HH/HV or VV/VH HH or VV or HH/HV or VV/VH or (HH/HV + VV/VH)	8-70°
Stripmap(fine)	10 m	70 km	HH or VV or HH/HV or VV/VH HH or VV or HH/HV or VV/VH or (HH/HV + VV/VH)	8-70°
ScanSAR	100 m	350 km	HH or VV or HH/HV or VV/VH	8-70°

Satellites this instrument is flying on

Note: a red tag indicates satellites no longer operational, a green tag indicates operational satellites, a blue tag indicates future satellites

Advanced Land Observing Satellite (JAXA)
- ALOS-2 (see instrument status) Aug 2014 - 2025

Instrument classification

Earth observation instrument
Active and radio-occultation sensor
Imaging radar (SAR)

WIGOS Subcomponents

Subcomponent 1
SAR imagers and altimeters
SAR imager
Subcomponent 3
MW imagery [in SSO]
Low-frequency SAR for vegetation mapping

Mission objectives

Primary mission objectives

Biomass
Fraction of vegetated land
Land cover
Land surface topography
Oil spill cover
Sea-ice cover
Sea-ice type
Soil moisture at surface

Evaluation of Measurements

The following list indicates which measurements can typically be retrieved from this category of instrument. To see a full Gap Analysis by Variable, click on the respective variable.

Note: table can be sorted by clicking on the column headers
Note: * Primary mission objective.

Search:

Variable	Relevance for measuring this variable	Operational limitations	Explanation
Glacier cover	1 - primary	Long time for mapping.	L-band SAR for accurate boundary detection
Sea-ice cover*	1 - primary	No specific limitation.	L-band SAR
Biomass*	2 - very high	Index only.. Infrequent coverage.	L-band sensitive to total biomass
Glacier motion	2 - very high	Infrequent coverage.	L-band SAR for interferometry between images taken at time intervals
Glacier topography	2 - very high	Long time for mapping.	L-band SAR for interferometry between images taken at time intervals
Ice sheet topography	2 - very high	Long time for mapping.	L-band SAR for interferometry between images taken at time intervals
Land surface topography*	2 - very high	Long time for mapping.	L-band SAR for interferometry between images taken at time intervals
Oil spill cover*	2 - very high	Infrequent coverage.	L-band SAR
Soil moisture (in the roots region)	2 - very high	Infrequent coverage.	L-band SAR
Soil moisture at surface*	2 - very high	Infrequent coverage.	L-band SAR
Fire fractional cover	3 - high	Infrequent coverage.	L-band SAR. High resolution, for fire boundary detection
Sea-ice type*	3 - high	No specific limitation.	L-band SAR. Type interpreted as age/roughness
Snow water equivalent	4 - fair	Change detection only.. Infrequent coverage.	L-band SAR. SWE is retrieved by grigging with data from ground networks
Dominant wave direction	5 - marginal	Infrequent coverage.	L-band SAR. Variable measured by spectral analysis of "imagettes"
Dominant wave period	5 - marginal	Infrequent coverage.	L-band SAR. Variable measured by spectral analysis of "imagettes"
Fraction of vegetated land*	5 - marginal	No specific limitation.	L-band SAR
Land cover*	5 - marginal	No specific limitation.	L-band SAR
Significant wave height	5 - marginal	Highly indirect.. Infrequent coverage.	L-band SAR. Retrieved by spectral analysis of "imagettes". Boundary condition necessary for the retrieval
Soil type	5 - marginal	No specific limitation.	L-band SAR
Vegetation type	5 - marginal	No specific limitation.	L-band SAR
Wave directional energy frequency spectrum	5 - marginal	Infrequent coverage.	L-band SAR. Variable measured by spectral analysis of "imagettes"
Sea-ice elevation	5 - marginal	No specific limitation.	L-band SAR. Sea ice elevation measured by interferometry
Sea-ice thickness	5 - marginal	Change detection only.	L-band SAR. Sea ice elevation measured by interferometry. Thickness inferred by ice model

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