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About ALOS

The Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) was a Japanese Earth-imaging satellite from JAXA that launched on 24 January 2006 and completed its operational phase on 12 May 2011 after failing due to a power anomaly.
ALOS is part of ESA's Third Party Missions Programme, in which ESA has an agreement with JAXA to distribute data products from the mission.
ALOS Objectives
The ALOS mission objectives were:
- providing its user community with data of sufficient resolution to be able to generate 1:25,000 scale maps
- developing Digital Elevation Models and related geographic data products
- performing regional observation to aid sustainable development goals
- surveying natural resources
- develop sensor and satellite technology for future Earth-observation missions
- disaster monitoring around the world
ALOS Instruments

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The ALOS instruments were capable of observing the entire surface of the Earth:
- Any place within two days
- Around the equator: about 60% of the area within one day
- At latitudes of 35°: about 70% of the area within one day
- At latitudes above 55°: any place every day (provided there is no cloud cover for the optical instruments)
Night-time observation modes: PALSAR (Note: AVNIR-2 and PALSAR are able to operate simultaneously).
PALSAR calibration is provided with PARC (Polarimetric Active Radar Calibrator) as well as by other means.
Non-scientific measuring instruments:
- AOCS (Attitude Orbit and Control System)
- RRA (RetroReflector Array)
- SST (Star Tracker)
ALOS Data
DATA DESCRIPTION
Through the Online Dissemination server, ESA offers registered users access to the following data collections: