the earth observation handbook

Mission Status Launch Date EOL Date Applications Instruments Orbit Details & URL 

3D Winds 

Three Dimensional Tropospheric 

Winds from Space Based Lidar 

HDWL (3D Winds) 

NASA 

ACE 

Aerosol Clouds and Ecosystem 

Mission 

NASA 

ACRIMSAT 

Active Cavity Radiometer 

Irradiance Monitor 

NASA 

ADM-Aeolus 

Atmospheric Dynamics Mission 

(Earth Explorer Core Mission) 

ESA 

AISSat-1 

Automatic Identification System 

Satellite-1 

NSC 

ALOS 

Advanced Land Observing 

Satellite 

JAXA 

ALOS-2 


Satellite-2 

JAXA 

ALOS-3 


Satellite-3 

JAXA 

AMAZÔNIA-1 

Remote Sensing Satellite 1 

INPE 

Aqua 

Aqua (formerly EOS PM-1) 

NASA / JAXA / BNISS / INPE 

Considered 01 Jan 2030 01 Jan 2033 Phase-2 DS Mission, launch order 

unknown, 3-year nominal mission. 

Tropospheric winds for weather 

forecasting and pollution transport 



Aerosol and cloud profiles for climate and 

water cycle; ocean color for open ocean 

biogeochemistry 

Currently being flown 20 Dec 1999 30 Sep 2011 5-year nominal mission life, currently in 

extended operations. Will sustain longterm 

solar luminosity database by 

providing measurements of total solar 

irradiance and the solar constant 

Cloud radar (ACE), Next Gen 

APS (ACE), Multi-band 

UV/VIS Spectrometer (ACE), 

HSRL (ACE) 

ACRIM III 

Approved 28 Feb 2012 28 May 2015 Will provide wind profile measurements 

for global 3D wind field products used for 

study of atmospheric dynamics, including 

global transport of energy, water, 

aerosols, and chemicals 

ALADIN 

Currently being flown 12 Jul 2010 01 Aug 2013 Demonstrate and extend access to AIS 

(Automatic Identification System) signals 

beyond the land-based AIS system 

operated by the Norwegian Coastal 

Administration today. Observe ship traffic 

in the High North. 

SDR 

Currently being flown 24 Jan 2006 01 Sep 2013 Cartography, digital terrain models, 

environmental monitoring, disaster 

monitoring, civil planning, agriculture and 

forestry, Earth resources, land surface 

AVNIR-2, PALSAR, PRISM 

Approved 01 Jan 2013 01 Jan 2017 environmental monitoring, disaster L-Band SAR (ALOS-2) 



Planned 01 Jan 2014 01 Jan 2018 Cartography, digital terrain models, 

environmental monitoring, disaster 



Optical or HyperSpectral 

(TBD) 

Approved 30 Jun 2013 30 Jun 2017 Earth resources, environmental 

monitoring, land surface 

Currently being flown 04 May 2002 30 Sep 2011 6-year nominal mission life, currently in 

extended operations. 

Atmosphericdynamics/water and energy 

cycles, cloudformation, precipitationand 

radiativeproperties, air/seafluxes of 

energy andmoisture, sea ice extentand 

heat exchange with the atmosphere. 

Option of 705km or 438km orbit altitude. 

ASCENDS 

Active Sensing of CO2 Emissions 

over Nights, Days, and Seasons 



Day/night, all-latitude, all-season CO2 

column integrals for climate emissions 

NASA 

Aura 

Aura (formerly EOS Chemistry) 

NASA / NSO / FMI / BNSC 

AWiFSSAT 

Advance Wide Field Sensor 

Satellite 

ISRO 

AWFI 

AIRS, MODIS, CERES, HSB, 

AMSR-E, AMSU-A 

CO2 LIDAR (ASCENDS) 

Currently being flown 15 Jul 2004 30 Sep 2011 5-year nominal mission life, currently in 

extended operations. Chemistry and 

dynamics of Earth’s atmosphere from the 

ground through the mesosphere. 

MLS (EOS-Aura), TES, 

HiRDLS, OMI 

Considered 01 Jan 2012 01 Jan 2016 Natural resources management; 

agricultural applications; forestry etc. 

AWiFS 

Type: Sun-synchronous 

Altitude: 400 km 

Period: 

Inclination: 97.03 deg 

Repeat cycle: 12 days 

LST: 6:00 

Longitude (if geo): 

Asc/desc: Ascending 

URL: http://decadal.gsfc.nasa.gov/3dwinds.html 



Period: 


Repeat cycle: 

LST: 13:00 



URL: http://dsm.gsfc.nasa.gov/ace/science.html 



Period: 90 mins 


Repeat cycle: 

LST: 10:50 


Asc/desc: Descending 

URL: http://acrim.jpl.nasa.gov/ 



Period: 92.5 mins 



LST: 18:00 



URL: http://www.esa.int/export/esaLP/aeolus.html 


Altitude: 

Period: 

Inclination: 

Repeat cycle: 

LST: TBD 



URL: 






LST: 10:30 



URL: http://www.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/alos/index_e.html 






LST: 12:00 



URL: http://www.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/alos2/index_e.html 


Altitude: 

Period: 

Inclination: 

Repeat cycle: 

LST: 13:30 



URL: 



Period: 

Inclination: 0 deg 

Repeat cycle: 

LST: 



URL: http://www.inpe.br/programas/mecb/default.htm 






LST: 13:30 



URL: http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov 




Inclination: 

Repeat cycle: 

LST: 10:30 



URL: http://cce.nasa.gov/ascends/index.htm 






LST: 13:38 



URL: http://aura.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 






LST: 



URL: 

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the earth observation handbook

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