Space science and technology and their applications can contribute more efficiently to the efforts of humankind to promote sustainable development in all countries and regions of the world. Information obtained from space-derived geospatial data is providing essential inputs for decision-making in areas such as disaster management and emergency response. The Earth observation satellites can be well applied through observations of the Earth’s surface from space to help in the preservation of forests by grasping the seriousness of deforestation or with mitigation of devastating disasters by capturing images and studying geographical changes in affected areas. Having “No Sustainable Development without Space” in mind、I would like to speak the significance of the utilization of the Earth observation data. Space technology provides a wide range of essential tools for making informed decisions in support of development at local, national, regional and global levels in both public and private domains. A continuous monitoring and observation system that feeds into decision support systems and ensures an informed decision-making is crucial. I would also like to touch upon the related activities conducted in the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Use of outer Space.

The overarching goal of the Earth Science Division at NASA is to advance Earth System science through spaceborne data acquisition, research and analysis, and predictive modeling. This plenary address summarizes recent mission developments and future directions within the NASA Earth Science community. A central part of this strategy is a robust technology investment program, to improve Earth observation capabilities. After a brief overview of technologies addressing each of these key challenges, the remainder of the talk focuses upon active remote sensing technology developments, including both lidar and radar advancements. The majority of future Earth-science missions will require active remote sensing capabilities. This presentation provides an overview of the technology investments NASA is making in Earth Science.

After decades of explorations and technology accumulations, a framework of earth observations has been established in China and among them satellite observation has been playing an important role. This presentation brief summaries 1) the current status of the satellite earth observation systems, data and applications in China, and 2) China’s policy in international earth observation collaborations, including those in Asia-Pacific regions. There are several satellite earth observation systems in China, including the series of the resource (ZY), the oceanic (HY), the meteorology (FY), and the environmental disaster mitigation (HJ). In addition, the Chang-E (CE-1) and (CE-2) lunar orbiters expanded the satellite remote sensing into deep space. In addition, the second-generation polar orbit meteorological satellite, FY-3, can be used in the fields of global numerical weather prediction, global change, monitoring of large-scale natural disasters and the surface environment. The overall efforts made for satellites data sharing will be described. The application examples in the fields of meteorology, agriculture, environment protection, oceanography, seismology and urban planning, based on China’s satellite data will be presented in this talk. China plays also actively in GEOSS progress and plays a significant role. The CMACast is one of three GEOSS earth observation data distribution platforms (GEONETCast). It provides the observations over the Asia-Pacific regions from the weather and environmental satellites, such as FY-1D, FY-2C/2D, NOAA-16/17/18, MTSAT-1R, and EOS/MODIS with roughly 22GB data volume per day. China’s activities and policy in international earth observation collaborations, especially in Asia-Pacific regions will be demonstrated. The role of NRSCC in the yearly coordinating of government R & D funds for remote sensing is also introduced.

Augmenting the surface-based measurements of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) is an important task in better understanding the global carbon cycle. To this end, the Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT) was launched in early 2009. The main sensors onboard GOSAT are the Thermal And Near-infrared Sensor for carbon Observation (TANSO) - Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) and the TANSO - Cloud and Aerosol Imager (CAI). These sensors have been collecting data since June 2009. The column concentrations of CO2 and CH4 are retrieved from the spectral data by TANSO-FTS. The TANSO-CAI data are used to remove scans that are contaminated with clouds. The column concentrations of CO2 and CH4 (TANSO-FTS Level 2 products) have been disseminated to the general public. The quality of the retrieved concentrations was validated by comparing with reference data collected by ground-based FTSs and airborne in-situ instruments. The GOSAT-based CO2 data and ground-based observations were used together to estimate monthly surface CO2 fluxes for 64 sub-continental regions and obtain three-dimensional CO2 distributions. Here, I will present the status and progress of the GOSAT Project and touch on recent major outcomes.

We are developing two types of 2-micron conductive-cooled lasers for wind and CO2 measurements. These lasers are conductive-cooled, solid-state and eye-safe. Then, these are suitable for space applications.

We have developed a 1.5-μm eye-safe wavelength high-average power laser amplifier using Er,Yb:glass planar waveguide for a coherent Doppler LIDAR. Large cooling surface of the planar waveguide realized high-average power pumping for Er,Yb:glass which has low thermal fracture limit. Nonlinear effects threshold is controlled by the waveguide thickness and the beam width of the planar direction. Multi-bounce optical path configuration and high-intensity pumping provide high-gain and high-efficiency operation using three-level laser material. With pulsed operation, the maximum pulse energy of 1.9-mJ was achieved at the repetition rate of 4-kHz.

We report on an all-solid-state rapidly tunable pulsed coherent 6-10 μm light source achieved in an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) pumped with an electronically tuned Cr:ZnSe laser and its application to lidar remote sensing for environmental detection. We designed a lidar system using the 6-10 μm light source and a telescope with a primary mirror of 50 cm and a high-efficient HgCdTe detector. The lidar system would be a valuable system in the measurement of chemical agents in the 100-300 m.

A dual-wavelength Q-switched Nd:YAG laser operating at 1064 and 1319 nm is useful as a light source for simultaneous lidar observations of the canopy height and the NDVI. In this study, simultaneous dual-wavelength lasing was achieved in a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser by adjusting an interval between two Q-switch trigger times and by optimizing the resonator designs for both wavelengths. Q-switched pulse energies of 8.4mJ and 9.2mJ were obtained at 1064 and 1319 nm, respectively. The pulse-to-pulse amplitude stability at each wavelength exhibited at most +/-20% fluctuation about the mean.

A lidar for measuring fluorescence from atmospheric aerosols was constructed with a third harmonic Nd:YAG laser, a 1-m diameter telescope, and a 32-channel time-resolved photon counting spectrometer system. The fluorescence from aerosols in the spectral range from 420nm to 520nm was studied with the excitation at 355nm. A broad fluorescence was observed in this spectral region. However, the peaks in the spectrum previously reported were not found so far. The intensity of the broad fluorescence was dependent on air mass. Relationships between the fluorescence intensity and the aerosol extinction coefficient, the particle depolarization ratio (and aerosol type) were studied.

Proper oil palm plantation management is crucial for Malaysia as the country depends heavily on palm oil as a major source of national income. Precision agriculture is considered as one of the approaches that can be adopted to improve plantation practices for plantation managers such as the government-owned FELDA. However, currently the implementation of precision agriculture based on remote sensing and GIS is still lacking. This study explores the potential of the use of Lidar and optical remote sensing data for plantation road and terrain planning for planting purposes. Traditional approaches use land surveying techniques that are time consuming and costly for vast plantation areas. The first ever airborne Lidar and optical remote sensing survey for oil palm plantation was carried out in early 2012 to test its feasibility. Preliminary results show the efficiency of such technology in demanding engineering and agricultural requirements of oil palm plantation. The most significant advantage of the approach is that it allows plantation managers to accurately plan the plantation road and determine the planting positions of new oil palm seedlings. Furthermore, this creates for the first time, digital database of oil palm estate and the airborne imagery can also be used for related activities such as oil palm tree inventory and detection of palm diseases. This work serves as the pioneer towards a more frequent application of Lidar and optical data for oil palm plantation in Malaysia.

Polarization optical particle counter (POPC) capable of measuring particle shape or sphericity was developed, which uses detection of polarization of light scattered by particles. Sensors that detected P and S polarization components are incorporated at scattering angle of 120˚ in addition to ordinary sensor located at the angle of 60˚. The particle size is derived from the pulse height detected with the ordinary sensor. The size thresholds were determined by measurements of PSL standard particles. Polarization of particle is calculated as the ratio of S polarization component to the sum of all components. The POPC field observations were started in Fukuoka, Japan on 15 March 2012 and in Matsue, Japan on 28 February 2012. Air pollution with high particle number concentration was observed in Fukuoka on 11 April. In that time, the particles with polarization lower than 0.3 constituted 90% of particles in the size range from 0.5 µm to 3 µm and 70-90% of those from 3 µm to 5 µm. Most of the atmospheric aerosol particles were consisted of spherical particles. Significant Asian dust transport was observed in Fukuoka on from 31 March to 1 April. The particles with polarization lower than 0.3 constituted 80% of those from 0.5 µm to 1 µm, 55-65% of those from 1 µm to 5µm. The increase of the ratio of non-spherical particles to all particles in Asian dust event was confirmed. The POPC thus is capable of measuring particle shape as well as size for each individual particle.

In this paper, a 2D shape registration algorithm for noisy and incomplete data is established by combining the Expectation Maximization (EM), Iterative Closest Point (ICP) method and Lie Group representation. The problem is formulated as a minimizing problem with two sets of variables, i.e. the point-to-point correspondence and the transformation between two data sets. The implementation is conducted by iterating alternatively the following two steps: 1) having the correspondence fixed, solve the transformation; and 2) having the transformation fixed, solve the correspondence. The experimental results demonstrate that, compared with EM-ICP and Lie-ICP, our algorithm is more robust and accurate.

The paper presents a study of LIDAR-based sense making and topographic mapping with the objective for alternative navigation in case the GPS service is not available. In this paper, a few LIDAR data processing and image matching approaches will be covered. For an accurate digital elevation model, a progressive morphological filtering and elevation filtering are used after getting a raw digital terrain model. By performing the effective image matching process, we have successfully achieved accurate topographic mapping based on real LIDAR measurement. The result is able to indicate exactly where the LIDAR image was taken.

A sensitivity study is performed to select the best water vapor lines in the infrared region 1.5-2.5 μm for profiling tropospheric water vapor using a differential absorption lidar. The most suitable water vapor spectral lines will be selected for different altitudes domains (boundary layer, middle and upper troposphere). The selection criteria and results will be presented. Retrieval simulation for the best line candidates will be shown for various atmospheric scenarios (temperature, humidity, aerosols, clouds) and observations geometry (ground-based, air-borne and space-borne instruments).

Recently, we have developed the high output power laser amplifier using Er,Yb:glass planar waveguide. After this development, we have developed the 1.5 μm coherent Doppler LIDAR using this laser amplifier. In this paper, we introduce this development and demonstrate of a long range wind sensing using the developed system. The output pulse has an energy of 1.4 mJ with a pulse repetition frequency of 4 kHz, in addition to a nearly diffraction limited beam quality. In the wind sensing, we demonstrate the measurable range of more than 30 km in addition to the stable system operation.

Always, in the atmosphere of the earth we live in is a luminous phenomenona (Fluorescence by cosmic rays, lightning and aurora etc..) has been occurring. JEM-EUSO (Extreme Universe Space Observatory onboard Japanese Experiment Module) experiment is the observation that aims to capture the luminous phenomenon in earth's atmosphere from orbit. JEM-EUSO telescope observations have been using a Fresnel lens of the world's largest. The observation area (250km radius at the sea level) is extremely larger than the telescope installed on the ground to captures the luminous phenomenon. The main target of EUSO is to capture the fluorescence emission caused by UHECR (Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Ray).

Paticulate backscatter coefficient (Bbp) can be estimated from CALIPSO's subsurface cross polarization lidar backscatter measurements. This study will introduce the theoretical basis and algorithms of CALIPSO Bbp product and its advantage over passive remote sening. It will also discuss the shortcoming and limitation of the current lidar measurements and the improvements that can be made in next generation of space lidars.

Sustained research efforts at NASA Langley Research Center during last fifteen years have resulted in a significant advancement in 2-micron diode-pumped, solid-state laser transmitter for wind and carbon dioxide measurement from ground, air and space-borne platform. Solid-state 2-micron laser is a key subsystem for a coherent Doppler lidar that measures the horizontal and vertical wind velocities with high precision and resolution. The same laser, after a few modifications, can also be used in a Differential Absorption Lidar system for measuring atmospheric CO2 concentration profiles. Researchers at NASA Langley Research Center have developed a compact, flight capable, high energy, injection seeded, 2-micron laser transmitter for ground and airborne wind and carbon dioxide measurements.This paper will give an overview of 2-micron solid-state laser technology development and discuss results from recent ground-based field measurements.

It is very important to watch the spatial distribution of vegetation biomass and changes in biomass over time, representing invaluable information to improve present assessments and future projections of the terrestrial carbon cycle. A space lidar is well known as a powerful remote sensing technology for measuring the canopy height accurately. This paper describe the ISS(International Spase Station)-JEM(Japanese Experimental Module)-EF(Expaused Facility) borne vegetation lidar using a two dimentional array detector in order to deduce measurement error of tree height due to ground slopes.

The paper describes the methodology adopted for developing an echo signal　simulator from forest for iLOVE (Iss-jem Lidar Observation of Vegetation Environment). The goals are developing the echo signal simulation model and visualizing the generation process of the echo signal. The simulator is conceived having four components: 1) Terrain and features component, 2) Sensor configuration component, 3) Echo signal generation component and 4) Visualization component. An echo signal was generated by a ray tracing method with footprint size, illuminating angle, pulse width, structure of terrain and features, and reflectance of terrain and features at specific wavelengths. Terrain and features data were defined by full polygon in a 3D space. A laser beam had a numerous sub laser beams and each sub laser beams had specific intensity based on TEM00. Furthermore, time-series intensity change of sub laser beams was based on a Gaussian distribution. In the echo signal generation process, firstly, intersections between sub laser beams and target objects were calculated. Secondly, echo signal of sub laser beams were calculated by intersections, pulse width and specific reflectance of target objects. Finally, an echo signal suitable for footprint size was calculated by a synthesis of echo signal of sub laser beams. Furthermore, intersections were drawn on surface of target objects in the 3D space. The results indicate that the simulator was useful for understanding relationship between the echo signal and the structure of target objects, and for developing algorism for forest applications.

Spaceborne LiDAR onboard the International Space Station (ISS) is now planned in Japan. The name is iss-jem Lidar for Observation of Vegetation Environment (i-LOVE), and it mainly aims to measure forest structure globally. In order to acquire the knowledge used for its design, we analyzed ICESat/GLAS data. The method of measuring canopy height using GLAS data was developed for the forest in Hokkaido, and its accuracy and problem were clarified. Utilizing these knowledge, the characteristics of spaceborne LiDAR suitable for forest observation were investigated, e.g. transmit frequency and direction of laser, size and division of footprint, and assumed measuring accuracy.

In this paper direct and inverse problems of laser sensing are considered in the stochastic approach, when the initial optical parameters in the transfer equation, which describes multiple scattering, are defined in the form of random functions of space and time. Solving the transfer equation with random parameters is carried out by the Monte Carlo method. Statement of direct and inverse problems of laser sensing theory is based upon the analysis of functional and correlation connections which define informativeness and interdependence of the estimated and measured parameters in a given experiment. The results of a big series of numerical experiments are presented. These results establish numerically the correlation connections between the time base of the echo-signal and the random space-time variation of the vertical profile of atmosphere aerosol and particles of the lower tier of liquid droplet clouds.

High precision polarization lidar has been developed for the prediction of local weather disaster. This lidar has the high extinction ratio of polarization of more than 30dB to estimate the small rotation angle of polarization plane of the echo, which is caused by Faraday effect. In this study, the interaction between the low altitude atmosphere and cloud is observed especially in bad weather conditions. The low altitude atmosphere leads rainfalls and lightning strikes, and the monitoring of its behavior is important for the prediction. The practical data will be shown by discussing their accordance with fundamental weather parameters.

Abstract This paper presents the Fog-Haze measurements by Raman-Rayleigh-Mie Lidar in North surbub of Nanjing, the measurement results are analyzed and compared with the weather forecast. Continuous measurents are carried out on 2009/12/2, it is clear day from 01:00 to 08:00 in the morning, and Fog-Haze is measured from at 10:00 in the morning to 19:00 in the evening. The Fog-Haze measurement results coincide with the weather forecast that very day. The Fog-Haze Lidar measurement results on 2009/12/2 are analyzed and compared with the boundary aerosol measurement results on 2010/01/10, the differential characters of range-corrected-signals between Fog-Haze and boundary aerosol are discussed. It is shown that Fog-Haze usually occurs at about 300-400m height and boundary aerosol usually occurs at about 1000m height in Nanjing. Keywords Fog-Haze; Lidar; Aerosol; North Suburb of Nanjing OCIS Codes 010.1100(aerosol detection) 010.1350 (backscatter) 010.3640(Lidar)

We improved two wavelength (532 and 1064nm) polarization Mie-scatter lidars used in the NIES lidar network observation by adding a N2 Raman scatter measurement channel (607nm) to realize more advanced aerosol classification and retrieval. The improved lidar system provides extinction coefficient at 532nm, backscatter coefficients at 532 and 1064 nm, and depolarization ratio at 532nm. We developed an algorithm to estimate vertical profiles of 532nm extinction coefficients of black carbon, dust, sea-salt, and air-pollution aerosols using the four channel lidar data. We present the developed Mie-Raman lidar system and the aerosol classification algorithm and demonstrate their performances.

Observations of urban boundary layer including in atmosphere aerosol optical properties, water vapor and temperature over Xi'an area have been carried out by a Raman-Mie lidar and a Micro-pulsed 3D scanner Mie lidar, which were built at XAUT. By the means of observations from July 2006 to June 2011, the diurnal cycle and the annual cycle of Mixed Layer Depth(MLD) have been analyzed, which obviously show that the MLD of annual cycle is higher in summer than that in winter over Xi'an area. Also, the relationship among MLD, relative humidity and temperature has been discussed, which is of great importance to study the proliferation of urban pollution and obtain a complete meteorological status of the urban atmosphere.

The results of PBL structure and dynamics carried out by means of lidar and meteo soundings in transitional ocean-continent zone are presented and discussed. It was found that in winter PBL contains aerosol from continental sources. Typical PBL depth equals to 1400 ± 530 m for cloudless days in winter. Top of the internal boundary layer (cloudless days) in midday reaches 880 ± 270 m. At night, the stable layer average height is 336 ± 65 m. At night in winter well-developed dynamic convection is caused by low-level jet stream. In summer, breeze circulation is clearly observed in scattered light depolarization behavior with a weak south wind (less than 3 m/s) and only on the windward side of the bay.

Laser remote sensing technologies are valuable for a variety of scientific requirements. JAXA collaborated with NICT and RIKEN started a new cross-sectional 3-year program to improve a technology readineas of the critical 1-micron wavelengths from 2011.The efficient frequency conversions such as second and third harmonic generation and optical parametric oscillation/generation are applied. The program has invested in several critical areas including advanced laser transmitter technologies to enable science measurements and improvement of knowledge for space-based laser diode arrays, Pockels cells, etc for space-based lidars. Final goal is aim to realize 15 watt class Q-switched pulse laser over 3-year lifetime.

Remote sensing technology of hydrogen gas concentration distribution using a Raman lidar was developed. The lidar system consisted of a pulsed laser of wavelength 355 nm and a telescope of aperture 170 mm. The system could detect hydrogen gas by Raman scattering. In this method, hydrogen gas concentration could be measured based on the ratio of the Raman scattering signals from hydrogen gas and from atmospheric nitrogen, which were simultaneously measured. In this manner, the geometrical form factor and the instrumental function were canceled. Hydrogen gas concentration of 0.6-100% could be measured at a distance 13m using this system.

We have suggested new type of Doppler transmitter and discriminator to decrease its complexity, size and price. We have calculated transmitting and receiving characteristics of unseeded Nd:YAG laser. And we find that the Solid etalon Doppler discriminator can be used as a Doppler discriminator when the unseeded pulsed laser is transmitted through the same etalon. And more this system is 2.8 times more sensitive than traditional iodine based Doppler discriminator when we use two discriminators with different incident angles. To check these possibilities, we have measured the speed of rotating wheel by using unseeded laser and solid etalon Doppler discriminator.

A coherent 2-μm differential absorption and wind lidar (Co2DiaWiL) has been built with a high power Q-switched Tm,Hm:YLF laser to measure CO2 concentration and radial wind speed. Our experiment was conducted to test the ability of the Co2DiaWiL to make wind measurement in the atmospheric boundary layer and lower free troposphere. The bias and random error in the velocity measurements of Co2DiaWiL were investigated by the horizontally and vertically fixed beam mode, respectively. The radial velocity measurements were made for ranges up to 20-25 km by the horizontally fixed beam mode for average times of 1 min.

Raman lidar observations were conducted at the coastal area of Yokosuka, Japan, using a laser wavelength of 280 nm. Raman scattering signals from water vapor and atmospheric nitrogen were simultaneously measured at the zenith direction. The water vapor Raman scattering signals from clouds were evaluated using a simplified model which includes the extinction of laser light inside the cloud and the effect of multiple scattering. The model could sufficiently explain the variation of the water vapor Raman scattering signal with respect to the penetration distance into the cloud.

Meteorological observation data are important for validating numerical weather simulation models. Lidar is an effective method for acquiring such data. We carried out a field observation with coherent Doppler Lidar and Raman Lidar systems and compared the observed data with the results of numerical simulations. We obtained the vertical profiles of horizontal wind and the water vapor at the lower atmosphere. We found a phenomenon from observed data indicating that, water vapor increased just after a change in wind direction. A similar phenomenon was also predicted by the numerical simulation and we learned the mechanism of this phenomenon.

For validation of GOSAT (Greenhouse gas Observation SATellite) data products, ground-base observation with Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS), aerosol lidar and ozone-DIAL lidar at Saga University, JAPAN has been continued since March, 2011. In this study, observation results obtained from aerosol lidar are reported. Seasonal or annual tendency of scattering ratio, wavelength dependency, depolarization and lidar ratio is also shown.

We present possibilities of atmospheric and oceanic observations by a two wavelength (1064 and 532nm) Mie-scattering lidar from space with ISS-JEM Lidar Observation of Vegetation Environment (i-LOVE) that is being proposed to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The performance of the lidar currently considered is not as good as CALIOP as an atmospheric lidar, however, the data will be useful for observing distributions of aerosols and clouds. The non-sun-synchronous orbit of ISS will allow observation of diurnal variations of clouds and aerosols. The lidar signals from sea surface will be useful to derive surface wind speed. The multi-element (or imaging) lidar capability of the lidar may provide additional information in the analysis. The backscattering profiles under the sea surface with the 532-nm cross-polarization channel can be used for estimating chlorophyll concentration with the method developed by Y. Hu.