Fig. 1 Earth Environment surrounding Human 
Activities 
ary area, which have not been studied well by or 
dinary independent science fields such as atmo 
sphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere, will be the 
target of this research programme. For example, 
boundary area between atmosphere and hydro 
sphere: remote sensing of air-sea interaction sys 
tem, boundary area between atmosphere and geo 
sphere: remote sensing of evaporation and exhala 
tion-snow and rainfall interaction system, and 
boundary area between hydrosphere and geo 
sphere: remote sensing of water ciculation and 
soil moisture are selected. 
As common basic technologies essential to the re 
searches on boundary areas between atmosphere 
and hydrosphere, atmosphere and geosphere, and 
hydrosphere and geosphere, researches on mea 
surement and information processing are pro 
moted. As for measurement, microwave remote 
sensing has been selected, because it is expected 
to play an important role in the future earth ob 
servation for atmosphere, hydrosphere, and geo 
sphere, but so far its basic research has not been 
studied well in Japan. And as another common 
basic techology, advanced information processing 
for higher order utilization of satellite data from 
the global point of view to promote researches on 
atmosphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere is inves 
tigated. Five research fields have been selected as 
shown in Fig. 2. 
Through discussion on how to promote effectively 
unique and well organized research programme 
with close cooperation between science and engi 
neering in both hardware and software sides, the 
following five planned researches have been se 
lected. 
A Basic Study on Earth Observations by Mi 
crowaves 
Leader: Ilaruto IIIROSAWA (Institute of Space 
and Astronautical Science) 
B Grobal Change Analysis of Biosphere Using 
Satellite Data -Interaction between Atmo 
spheric and Terrestrial Aspects- 
Leader: Shunji MURAI (Institute of Industrial 
Science, University of Tokyo) 
C Study on Physical Process of Water Cycle over 
the Land 
Leader: Junsei HONDO (Geophysical Institute, 
Tohoku University) 
D Study of Air-Sea Interaction Using Satellite 
Data 
Leader: Yasuhiro SUGIMORI (School of Ma 
rine Science and Technology, Tokai Universiy) 
E Higher Order Processing of Earth Observation 
Information 
Leader: Ryuzo YOKOYAMA (Faculty of 
Engi neering, Iwate University) 
The objectives of each planned research are as fol 
lows: 
A Basic Study on Earth Observations by Mi 
crowaves 
1. A study on radar polarimetry. 
2. A study on microwave measurement of air-sea 
boundary processes. 
3. Backscattering from windwaves with applica 
tion to microwave backscatter. 
4. Investigation of sea-ice parameter derived 
from microwave remote sensing. 
B. Global Change Analysis of Biospace using 
Satellite Data -Interaction between Atmospheric 
and Terrestrial Aspects- 
1. The Biosphere’s evaluation system using global 
vegetation index of NOAA and the geographic in 
formation will be made in order to compare the 
difference between regions of the continents. The 
final result is to provide the evaluation map of 
global bio-environment by using inmage process 
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