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Phased Array L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR)

The PALSAR is an active microwave sensor aboard the Advance Land Observing Satellite (ALOS). The sensor operates at L-band with HH and VV polarisation (HV and VH polarisations are optional). The sensor is beam steerable in elevation and the ScanSAR mode allows obtaining a wider swath than conventional SARs. ALOS was launched in 2004 into a sun-synchronous orbit at the altitude of 700km, providing a spatial resolution of 20m for the fine resolution mode (swath width of 70km) and 100m for the ScanSAR mode (swath width of 360km). The repeat cycle is 46 days and the local time at descending node is about 10:30am. PALSAR data can be downloaded from ERSDAC.

Mission	PALSAR
Sensor	Phased Array L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR)
Spacecraft	Advance Land Observing Satellite (ALOS)
Launch date	24th, Jan. 2006
Design life	3 - 5 years
Orbit	Sun-Synchronous Sub-Recurrent, at an angle of 98.16°, at altitude of 691.65km (at equator).
Spacecraft operations control centre	JAXA and JAROS
Center frequency (GHz)	1.27 (L-band)
Mode	Fine		ScanSAR	Polarimetric (Experimental mode)
Band width (MHz)	28	14	14, 28	14
Polarisation	HH or VV	HH+HV or VV+VH	HH or VV	HH+HV+VV+VH
Incidence angle (°)	8 - 60	8 - 60	18 - 43	8 - 30
Swath (km)	40 - 70	40 - 70	250 - 350	20 - 65
Spatial resolution (m)	7 - 44	14 - 88	100 (multi-look)	24 - 89
Bit length	5 bits	5 bits	5 bits	3 or 5 bits
Radiometric accuracy	scene: 1dB or orbit: 1.5dB
Temporal resolution	Repeat Cycle: 46 days, Sub Cycle: 2 days

PALSAR full beam mode product overpass time

PALSAR coverage for the Murrumbidgee Catchment during the AACES-2 campaign has been calculated by a Fortran program based on NORAD data for 6th, Nov. 2009, and is summarized in the table below. Date and time are in UTC. Aircraft flights were assumed to be conducted at 7:45 for descending overpass and 20:35 for ascending overpass.

	: Transect flight within 6 hours		: Patch flight within 6 hours
●	: Fully covered	○	: Partially covered

UTC Date

Start UTC Time

Duration (s)

Flight

Patch

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

2010/1/18

23:51:03

145

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

2010/1/19

13:29:56

160

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

2010/1/20

23:34:16

122

○

○

●

●

●

2010/1/21

13:12:53

140

○

●

●

●

●

●

●

2010/1/22

0:14:23

135

P01

●

●

●

●

●

○

○

2010/1/22

13:53:43

112

●

●

●

○

2010/1/23

23:57:17

144

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

2010/1/24

13:36:17

156

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

2010/1/25

23:40:17

140

○

●

●

●

●

●

●

2010/1/26

13:19:01

151

○

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

2010/1/27

0:20:45

111

●

●

○

○

2010/1/27

14:00:22

45

○

2010/1/27

23:24:20

30

P03

○

2010/1/28

13:02:28

91

○

●

2010/1/29

0:03:29

145

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

○

2010/1/29

13:42:37

147

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

○

○

2010/1/30

23:46:25

144

○

○

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

2010/1/31

13:25:14

158

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

2010/2/1

0:27:21

52

○

2010/2/1

23:29:52

100

T01

○

○

●

2010/2/2

13:08:21

126

○

●

●

●

●

2010/2/3

0:09:42

142

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

○

2010/2/3

13:48:58

129

●

●

●

●

●

○

2010/2/4

23:52:36

145

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

2010/2/5

13:31:32

160

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

2010/2/6

23:35:44

130

P05

○

○

●

●

●

●

2010/2/7

13:14:23

145

○

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

2010/2/8

0:15:58

129

●

●

●

●

○

○

2010/2/8

13:55:21

98

●

●

○

2010/2/9

23:58:49

144

P07

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

2010/2/10

13:37:51

153

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

○

2010/2/11

23:41:46

142

P06

○

○

●

●

●

●

●

●

2010/2/12

13:20:32

153

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

2010/2/13

0:22:20

100

●

○

○

2010/2/13

23:25:33

62

○

2010/2/14

13:03:51

105

○

●

●

2010/2/15

0:04:59

145

P08

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

○

○

2010/2/15

13:44:10

142

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

○

2010/2/16

23:47:53

146

○

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

2010/2/17

13:26:44

160

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

2010/2/18

23:31:13

111

○

○

●

●

2010/2/19

13:09:46

133

○

●

●

●

●

●

2010/2/20

0:11:10

140

T02

●

●

●

●

●

●

○

○

2010/2/20

13:50:28

123

●

●

●

●

○

2010/2/21

23:54:04

145

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●