2018 Volume 53 Issue 6 Pages 343-348
The “Shikisai” Global Change Observation Mission – Climate (GCOM-C), the second satellite of the GCOM program, was successfully launched on December 23, 2017 via a H-IIA rocket. The mission of the satellite is monitoring global climate change by observing the surface and atmosphere of the Earth over the course of five years. Following an in-orbit checkout onboard systems, JAXA is carrying out initial calibration activities. A single-stage Stirling cooler for space use is installed in the satellite for cooling the thermal infrared detector, and it has been working properly in orbit. This paper provides an overview of the GCOMC mission, especially the cryogenic technics applied to the satellite and shows, for the first time, some typical Earth observation images obtainable owing to those technics.
