PALSAR – Yearly Mosaic

Description of the layer

The global 25m PALSAR/PALSAR-2 mosaic is a seamless global SAR image created by mosaicking strips of SAR imagery from PALSAR/PALSAR-2. For each year and location, the strip data were selected through visual inspection of the browse mosaics available over the period, with those showing minimum response to surface moisture preferentially used. In cases where the availability was limited (e.g., because of the requirement for observations during specific emergencies), data were necessarily selected from the year before or after, including from 2006. Shimada et al. 2014. The SAR imagery was ortho-rectificatied and slope corrected using the 90m SRTM Digital Elevation Model. A destriping process (Shimada & Isoguchi, 2002, 2010) was applied to equalize the intensity differences between neighboring strips, occurring largely due to seasonal and daily differences in surface moisture conditions.

Global PALSAR-2/PALSAR Yearly Mosaic

Spatial resolution

Global coverage

Pixel size:

25m x 25m

Temporal resolution

Mosaics available from 2007-2010 and 2015- 2017


Source data: PALSAR

JAXA – PALSAR mission

The Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR) is an active microwave sensor using L-band frequency to achieve cloud-free and day-and-night land observation. It provides higher performance than theJERS-1's synthetic aperture radar (SAR). Fine resolution in a conventional mode, but PALSAR will have another advantageous observation mode. ScanSAR, which will enable us to acquire a 250 to 350km width of SAR images (depending on the number of scans) at the expense of spatial resolution. This swath is three to five times wider than conventional SAR images. The development of the PALSAR is a joint project between JAXA and the Japan Resources Observation System Organization (JAROS).