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SeaWinds on the Advanced Earth Observing Satellite II (ADEOS II) (SeaWinds)

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Status: Completed
Mission Category: Other
Launch Date: December 14, 2002
Launch Location: Tanegashima Space Center, Japan
Actual Completion Date: October 24, 2003

The SeaWinds scatterometer flew onboard the ADEOS II spacecraft. ADEOS II was an international satellite mission led by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) - formerly the National Space Development Agency (NASDA) of Japan - with U.S. (NASA) and French Centre Nationale d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) participation. Midori-II is the Japanese name for the mission.

The ADEOS II mission ended prematurely ten months after launch, owing to a failure of the solar panel on October 24, 2003.

Key SeaWinds on the Advanced Earth Observing Satellite II (ADEOS II) Facts

Mission/Portal Page: http://science.nasa.gov/missions/seawinds/
Launch Vehicle: H-IIA launch vehicle No. 4
Altitude:Distance from sea level. 803km
Inclination: 98.6°
Origination: Joint with Japan and France
Instruments: AMR (Advanced Microwave Radiometer)
GLI (Global Imager)
ILAS II (Improved Limb Atmospheric Spectrometer II)
POLDER (Polarization and Directionality of the Earth’s Reflectance)
SeaWinds (Microwave Radar Instrument)
Project Scientist(s): Ernesto Rodriguez

Relevant Science Focus Areas:

  • Climate Variability and Chang
  • Weather

Relevant Science Questions:

  • How is the global Earth changing?

Science Goals:

  • Monitor the water and energy cycle as a part of the global climate system.
  • Quantitatively estimate the biomass and fundamental productivity as a part of the carbon cycle, which plays an important role in global warming.
  • Detect trends in long-term climate change as a result of continuing the observations started by ADEOS-I.

Related Applications:

  • Air Quality
  • Coastal Management
  • Disaster Management