September, 2006
February, 2007
Figure 1: Click to see the larger image (350kB).
On July 24th 2006, a true color image was detected from an altitude of 690km by the Advanced Visible and Near Infrared Radiometer-2 (AVNIR-2) on board the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) "Daichi" when the satellite passed over the Yukon River basin located about 200km northeast of Fairbanks, Alaska, USA. Resolution of the image is 10 m. The observation was a part of collaborative research activities of the Hokkaido University, Asahi Shimbun (Japanese newspaper) and JAXA.
The mainstream of the Yukon looks white, which could be due to the surface wave and turbidity. Ponds and branches of the river look black. Cloud or smoke of a forest fire is shown in the right hand.
Pink colored areas in the image implied that clustered fireweed (rosebay) were in flower, which seems to spread over the burned regions of Alaskan large forest fire in 2004.
JAXA has completed the initial checkout activities of the ALOS and moved to the initial calibration and validation phase. Full-scale operation is scheduled in the autumn 2006.
