<i>Advanced Land Observing Satellite-2</i> “<i>DAICHI-2</i>” (<i>ALOS-2</i>): Overview and operational status

This article presents an overview and discusses the significance of the <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Advanced Land Observing Satellites-2</i> (<italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">ALOS-2</i>, “<italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">DAICHI-2</i>”). <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">ALOS-2</i>, the successor to the <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">ALOS</i> synthetic aperture radar (SAR) mission, was launched in 2014 and has been operating smoothly beyond its design mission life of seven years. The Phased Array-type L-band SAR-2 (PALSAR-2) on board <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">ALOS-2</i> has shown its maximum contribution in the basic observations of global land areas with time series acquired at high resolution and in emergency observations during natural disasters. This article introduces an overview of <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">ALOS-2</i> and the major results of its operation and calibration more than 10 years after launch. In addition, activities related to research and applications mainly using <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">ALOS-2</i> data are presented. This experience will be applied to <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">ALOS-4</i>.