JAXA Earth Observation Programs Digest

This paper digests the current and the near future scenario of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Earth Observation Program (EOP). JAXA´s EOP has over thirty years history and experiences since the mid of 1980s. Medium to large scale EO satellites with various optical and radar sensors, i.e., MOS-1/1b, JERS-1, ADEOS, ADEOS-II, ALOS, GOSAT, and GCOM-W1, were developed. ALOS-2 was launched on May 24, 2014 as the successor of the ALOS for the high resolution land monitoring in all weather conditions. Aqua/AMSR-E and TRMM/PR were onboard the NASA satellites as the international joint mission instruments. Airborne SAR systems were developed for further investigations and R&D of the SAR data. Their mission objectives fully synchronize with the Group on Earth Observation (GEO) [1].