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TRMM

Japan is also a principal participant in the international Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) scheduled to begin in 1997. Japan will launch the 3.5-metric-ton satellite built by NASA into a 350-km orbit with a low inclination of 35 degrees. Accompanying four NASA instruments will be the Japanese Precipitation Radar, operating at 13.8 GHz and sponsored by NASDA with Toshiba as the prime contractor. For the longer term, Japan envisions establishing a Global Earth Observation System comprised of a variety of low and high altitude satellites. One of the new spacecraft joining this fleet is the proposed Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS), which may be placed into a 700-km, sun-synchronous orbit by the year 2000 with a synthetic aperture radar and a version of the visible and near-IR radiometer design from ADEOS (References 585, 597, 601-603).

REFERENCES

585. N. W. Davis, "Japan Stresses Multisatellite Remote Sensing", Aerospace America, March 1993, p. 28.

597. P. Proctor, "Japan Plans New Generation of Remote Sensing Satellites", Aviation Week and Space Tehnology, 13 July 1992, p. 66-67.

601. T. Sakata, "Japan's New Long-Term Space Vision: Creating a Space Age in the New Century",Review, Vol. 4, No. 2, 1995, pp. 5-9.

602. Kyodo News Services, 14 May 1993.

603. W. Ferster, "Goddard Scientists Eye TRMM Follow-On Spacecraft", Space News, 3-9 July 1995, p. 16.

Sources and Resources

• Adapted from: Europe and Asia in Space 1993-1994, Nicholas Johnson and David Rodvold [Kaman Sciences / Air Force Phillips Laboratory]

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