A study on possibility of land vegetation observation with Mid-resolution sensor

The Fourth Assessment Report of IPCC predicted that global warming is already happening and it should be caused from the increase of greenhouse gases by the extension of human activities. These global changes will give a serious influence for human society. Global environment can be monitored by the earth observation using satellite. For the observation of global climate change and resolving the global warming process, satellite should be useful equipment and its detecting data contribute to social benefits effectively. JAXA (former NASDA) has made a new plan of the Global Change Observation Mission (GCOM) for monitoring of global environmental change. SGLI (Second Generation GLI) onboard GCOM-C (Climate) satellite, which is one of this mission, provides an optical sensor from Near-DV to TIR. Characteristic specifications of SGLI are as follows; 1) 250 m resolutions over land and area along the shore, 2) Three directional polarization observation (red and NIR), and 3) 500 m resolutions temperature over land and area along shore. These characteristics are useful in many fields of social benefits. For example, multi-angular observation and 250 m high frequency observation give new knowledge in monitoring of land vegetation. It is expected that land products with land aerosol information by polarization observation are improved remarkably. We are studying these possibilities by ground data and satellite data.