GOSAT is a satellite to
measure the column densities of CO2 and CH4 from space
globally, and it is scheduled to be launched in 2008. It has a short wavelength
infrared (SWIR) Fourier transform
spectrometer (FTS) which measures
both the ground surface scattered solar light over land and the right reflected
light (sun-glint) over ocean. Column densities of CO2
and CH4 will be retrieved from the SWIR
(i.e. 1.6 µm and 2.0 µm bands) data and the optical path length from oxygen A-band
(0.76 µm). A cloud and aerosol sensor composed of three spectral image sensors (0.380,
0.678 and 1.62 µm) is equipped, viewing the wider area than FTS. This is a joint project among Ministry of
Environment of Japan (MOE), National Insitutite for Environmental Studies
(NIES) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
Author: G. Inoue, T. Aoki, N. Eguchi, A. Higurashi, et al (inouegen at nies dot go dot jp)
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