Considering that the total data produced by the ALOS sensors on a daily basis (around 700 Gbyte) will be beyond the capabilities of any single agency to attempt to manage, but that there exists world-wide interest in the use of ALOS data, JAXA has established the concept of the ALOS Data Nodes with local archives, as a mechanism for sharing the processing and distribution load.
Each ALOS Data Node (ADN) is managed by a partner organization or consortium, by agreement with JAXA, and undertake to participate in certain tasks relating to the reception and near real time processing (in some cases), off-line processing, promotion, distribution, and archiving of ALOS data in support of the data users within their region, as well as of research study of ALOS data. Each Node is associated with a geographical zone, which defines the physical location of the ALOS users that the Node has mandate to support as an ADN partner. These zones are approximately defined in Fig. 1. GISTDA of Thailand will additionally serve as a sub-Node within Asia (*).
(*) The group of countries determined as the sub-Node zone are; Kingdom of Thailand, Union of Myanmar, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Kingdom of Cambodia, Malaysia, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, Republic of the Philippines
Each Node has a capability of producing the same quality of the Standard Products as JAXA's. The higher level products may be defined by the individual Nodes.
Although each Node is the focal point for the support of the ALOS users within its own zone, regional distributor(s) appointed by each Node will serve as the commercial data distributor and service agent for the users of commercial purposes within the relevant zone. JAXA appointed the Remote Sensing Technology Center (RESTEC) as the Primary Distributer (PD), which serves as the regional distributer in the Asia and Russian area as well as the coordinating agency among all of the regional distributers. RESTEC will also serve as the Regional Distributor (RD) of the Oceania Node by the coordination of Geoscience Australia, the Oceania Node organization, and JAXA. Regional Distributors of the other Nodes will be announced soon by each Node.
There is one exception for the PALSAR data distribution only. As JAXA and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) jointly developed PALSAR instrument, METI has an equal right to distribute the PALSAR data. The Earth Remote Sensing Data Analysis Center (ERSDAC), under METI agreement, will also distribute the PALSAR data, and ERSDAC is outside of this ADN concept. The PALSAR data products processed by the ERSDAC are similar to the JAXA Standard Products, however, they may be slightly different because of the differences in processing algorithms and formats applied.
Fig. 1 ALOS Data Nodes zone definitions
