4th Research Announcement (RA-4)

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has issued the forth Research Announcement (RA-4) on 20 July 2012 for science and application research using the Advanced Land Observing Satellite-2 (ALOS-2).

RA-4 solicits the research proposals for science and application research using ALOS-2, which carries the L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar, PALSAR-2 and will be launched in JFY 2013. ALOS-2 will utilize high resolution based advanced land observation technologies.
It will be used for disaster monitoring, environmental monitoring for sustainable Earth in forestry, cryospheric, and sea ice, natural resources (agriculture, ocean monitoring, and resources), technology development for the future Earth remote sensing (satellite and sensor). The target operational lifetime is seven years after the launch. JAXA will start distribution of the calibrated standard products from seven months after the launch.

Participation as an ALOS Principal Investigator (PI) is open to global researchers from all categories of organizations: educational institutions, research institutes, private enterprises and government institutions and any other organizations. The advantages of PIs are to access to relevant ALOS-2, ALOS, and JERS-1 data (limited amount) at no cost. Funds for PIs are not available under this RA.

Applicants may submit any time before 31 October 2012. Proposals will be peer reviewed by the end of January 2013. Applicants submitting accepted, applicants will be integrated into the ALOS-2 research team.

Further details of the Research Announcement are available on

http://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/ALOS/en/ra/ra4_guide.htm

4th ALOS Research Announcement guide

• Document release ---------- July 20, 2012
• Deadline for registration and submission of proposal ------- October 31, 2012
• Notification of PI selection ------- January 30, 2013 (planned)
• PI research activity ------ April 2013 ~
• 1st PI Meeting and symposium ------- September 2013 (planned)
• Final PI symposium ------- March 2016 (planned)

• * Research duration is normally 3 years and could be extended to 5 years at maximum, where JAXA plans to conduct the interim evaluation of results from PIs for possibility evaluation for two years' extension.