ACRES JERS Synthetic Aperture Radar Data

Note: This metadata describes the dataset in accordance with the ANZLIC (Australia New Zealand Land Information Council) Core Metadata Guidelines Version 2.

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Dataset citation

ANZLIC unique identifier: ANZCW0703005545

Title: ACRES JERS Synthetic Aperture Radar Data

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Custodian

Custodian: Geoscience Australia

Jurisdiction: Australia

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The JERS-1 satellite was developed by the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA). JERS-1 was launched in February 1992 and operated until 11 October 1998. The satellite traveled at an altitude of 568 kilometres and provided coverage of the entire globe every 44 days. The L-band, Synthetic Appeture Radar (SAR) sensor was the primary Earth-observing instrument. The SAR is an active microwave sensor capable of imaging earth resource targets regardless of time of day, cloud, haze or smoke cover of an area. The instrument is classified "active" as it emits the energy necessary to image the earth's surface. In contrast, "passive" or "optical" sensors rely on the sun's reflected energy to image the earth. The SAR ground swath is 75 kilometres wide, with a nominal 18 metre pixel resolution. The sensor has HH polarisation.

ANZLIC search words:

PHOTOGRAPHY AND IMAGERY
PHOTOGRAPHY AND IMAGERY Remote Sensing
PHOTOGRAPHY AND IMAGERY Satellite

Spatial domain:

locality map

Geographic extent name: AUSTRALIA INCLUDING EXTERNAL TERRITORIES - AUSAAT - Australia - Australia

Geographic extent polygon: 45 -9, 168 -9, 168 -90, 45 -90, 45 -9,

Note: The format for each Geographic extent name is: Name - Identifier - Category - Jurisdiction (as appropriate) See GEN Register

Geographic bounding box:: North bounding latitude: -9 °; South bounding latitude: -90 °; East bounding longitude: 168 °; West bounding longitude: 45 °

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Data currency

Beginning date: 1993-09-24

Ending date: 1998-10-03

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Dataset status

Progress: Complete

Maintenance and update frequency: Not Planned

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Access

Stored data format:: DIGITAL - Sat.image Satellite imagery

Available format type:: DIGITAL - Sat.image Satellite imagery

Access constraints:

The data are subject to Commonwealth of Australia Copyright. A licence agreement is required and a licence fee is also applicable.

Order Product

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Data quality

Lineage:

The JERS SAR data set is acquired by earth orbiting remote sensing satellites. These satellites carry two types of sensor systems known as "active" and "passive". The JERS SAR instrument is classified as "active" as it emits the energy necessary to image the earth's surface. The digital data acquired by the satellites are transmitted to ground stations and can be used to reconstitute an image of the Earth's surface not too dissimilar to an aerial photograph. Data are received through the ACRES antenna at the Data Acquisition Facility at Alice Springs enabling coverage of the Australian landmass. The recorded data are air-freighted daily to the Data Processing Facility in Canberra where it is catalogued and archived.

Data are recorded and archived by path, or swath, allowing coverage of any region in the path to be extracted by its geographical coordinates. If the region of interest extends across two adjacent paths the appropriate data set from each path will need to be extracted. Because of the orbital parameters of the satellite, adjacent paths are not acquired sequentially and information from each path may differ according to the time delay between the two passes. To assist cataloguing and ordering, a path is segmented into individual scenes the length of each scene being the same as the path width. Each scene can be related to geographical coordinates using the Path/Row reference system. The Path is the number of the satellite swath (east to west) across Australia and the Row is the number of the scene south of the equator.

Diagrams and formulae are available to assist in relating geographical coordinates to the satellite scene Path/Row coordinates. Data are provided as hard copy photographic data products, or as digital data products which can be viewed and manipulated on a variety of software systems. However, the data transmitted to Earth from an Earth observation satellite are in a form unsuitable for use by customers so ACRES processes this raw data in varying degrees to produce products suitable for use by clients. ACRES only processes the data after a client has placed an order for a specific product. This is due to the large quantities of data received from a satellite and the large range of product options available.

Positional accuracy:

Within 5km

Attribute accuracy:

Not Relevant

Logical Consistency:

As the data is acquired in seamless north-south paths (swaths) each path is internally consistent. However, paths are acquired on different dates and while paths can be joined to cover larger areas, changes in ground conditions between acquisition dates may be apparent in the resulting mosaic.

Completeness:

A new coverage was obtained every 44 days.

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Contact information

Contact organisation: Geoscience Australia (GA)
Contact position: Director, Sales and Distribution, ISB
Mail address: GPO Box 378
Mail address:
Locality: Canberra
State: ACT
Country: Australia
Postcode: 2601
Telephone: +61 2 6249 9966
Facsimile: +61 2 6249 9960
Electronic mail address: sales@ga.gov.au

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Metadata information

Metadata date: 2009-03-31

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Additional metadata

Metadata reference XHTML: http://www.ga.gov.au/meta/ANZCW0703005545.html

Metadata reference XML: http://www.ga.gov.au/meta/ANZCW0703005545.xml

Size of dataset: A full scene is approximately 250Mb.

Scale/resolution: JERS SAR scenes have an 18 metre pixel resolution.

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