(Left:Image No.1 Right:Image No.2)

September 3,1996 received Place:Japan

Sep. 4, 1996
NASDA HQ. Tokyo, Japan

The National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) received on September 3, 1996, at its Earth Observation Center (EOC) located in Hatoyama, Saitama Pref., the first image taken using the visible and near-infrared bands of the Ocean Color and Temperature Scanner (OCTS) aboard the Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS) launched from NASDA's Tanegashima Space Center on August 17. Image acquisition of this time was done as part of a series of OCTS functional verification test.

Both the images of No. 1 and 2 were taken by OCTS when ADEOS was flying approximately 800 km above the Pacific Coast in the Eastern Japan at 10:44 a.m. JST on September 3.

The Image No.1 is made of the data observing the Japanese Islands and the sea around them using OCTS' visible and near-infrared bands. The area indicated in this image is 1400 km X 2500 km, and its on-ground solubility is about 700m.

The Image No.2 is made of the rough data indicating density distribution of the main pigment of the vegetable plankton in an area of 1500 km X 1200 km, and its on-ground solubility is about 6 km.

For OCTS, NASDA, in the near future, plans to carry out the integrated verification tests including on-ground tests, such as, observation of the sea surface temperature distribution, equipment-calibration, etc., using thermal bands.

Point of contact
NASDA HQ
Tel:03-3438-6107~9
Earth Observation Center
Tel:0492-98-1203