ing technique. 
2. The global change analysis will be calibrated 
using local data based on climatological and eco 
logical zone aspect. 
3. The vegetatioon map and vegetation change in 
South-East Asia region will be made and com 
pared. 
C. Study on physical processes of water cycle over 
the land 
1. Water and heat balance at the ground surfaces 
(e.g.vegetated surface, bare soil and snow cover). 
2. Soil moisture measurement by active micro 
wave remote sensing techniques. 
3. Development of a rainfall prediction method by 
use of a three-dimensionally scanning radar. 
4. Study on snowfall and snow cover using remote 
sensing. 
5. Large scale water cycles as climate systems in 
relation to maintenance processes of precipitation 
over the continent in East Asia. 
D. Study of Air-Sea Interaction Using Satellite 
Data 
1. Techniques to estimate air-sea fluxes by satel 
lite data will be developed using the satellite data 
and in-situ data. The spatial distribution of heat 
flux in wide area will be determined. Satellite ob 
servation of sea surface temperature and atomo- 
spheric moisuture will be studied. 
2. Observations in Tanabe Bay will be continued 
for understanding the relation between oceano 
graphic mixed sturacture of the skin-layer near 
sea surface and heat-flux through the sea sur 
face. The short term variations of ocean mixed 
layer will be analyzed using satellite data. 
3. Air-mass modification process in an cold air 
outbreak over the Eastern China Sea is investigat 
ed by analyses of cloud patterns by GMS and a 
heat budget calculation based on observational 
data obtained by a meteorogical bouy operated by 
JMA. A simulation program of radiative transfer 
calculation for an atmosphere-ocean model in 
cluding cirrus cloud and broken cloud w ill be de 
veloped. Solar radiation at the sureface will be 
measured using pyranometers and a sunphotomc- 
ter. 
4. An algorithm to estimate the vertical distribu 
tion of phytoplankton pigments using underwater 
irradiance spectra will be developed. The relation 
between the pigments distribution and satellite 
data will be also investigated. 
E. Higher Order Processing of Earth Observation 
1. The development of integrated image interpre 
tation system based on artificial intelligence 
methods.: The fundamental design of the expert 
system to handle the land use and the land cover 
classification has been almost finished last year. 
In this year, the research activities will be direct 
ed to develop efficient classification algorithms 
based on the knowledge baseand by using spatial 
informations of pixels. The validation tests of 
their efficiencies will be proceeded. 
2. Development of modelling techniques for spa 
tial and temporal phenomena of environment 
based on the remotely sensed data.: In general, 
environmental phenomena are spatially and tem 
porally changing. The two dimensional data of 
images and the frequent observations are the ma 
jor advantages of remote sensing. Under the tit 
tle, a new modelling technique to describe the spa 
tial andtemporal behaviors of environmental phe 
nomena is going to be developed by making use of 
remotely sensed data. As a practical example for 
the model development will be taken to be a runoff 
model of rain and snow-melt waters. 
3. Development of efficient data base system.: Ef 
ficient algorithms for data compression of re 
motely sensed image data are to be developed un 
der the subject. But, for the time being, the main 
forces arc directed to the NOAA AVIIRR data 
compression algorithms in the detections of the 
sea surface temperature and the vegetation index. 
The AVIIRR images data have been received in 
Institute of Industrial Science, University of 
Tokyo, and widely used by many researchers of 
this project. In the final stage, a data base system 
of the archived AVIIRR image data is expected to 
be installed in the Institute. 
Each planned research is the core of a group com 
posed of the related research topics, which were 
selected from generally submitted proposals for 
1990. Each year the selection of proposal is made. 
The table I shows the organization and list of re 
search themes for 1990. Through this programme, 
the follow ing developments are expected: 
(1) Understanding of the mechanism of various 
phenomena with complicated mutual interaction 
in boundary areas using satellite data. (Air-sea 
interaction, Evaporation, exhalation and rainfall 
in water circulation, Soil moisture and in- and 
out-flow interaction and etc.) 
(2) Trace of wide and long term global change 
(Deforestation and soil run out, Variation of o- 
cean current, Desertation, Trace of NVI) 
(3) Evaluation and prediction of earth environ 
ment (GIS, Evaluation of productivity of land) 
(4) Establishment of basis of microwave remote 
sensing technology 
(5) Development of advanced information pro 
cessing technology for earth environment infor 
mation 
Working Groups have been established to promote 
researches on the common problems in a group or 
inter-group problems as shown in the Fable I. 
Working groups have meetings, which is open 
widely for every one interedted in this field. So, 
the announcemnt is mailed to not only all mem 
bers of the programme but also the people in the 
outside of this programme those w ho have interest 
in. The newsletter of this programme is issued 
three times a year for the better communication. 
Also, the General Supervising Commuttce was 
organized by 18 members as shown in the Table 1. 
Eight authorities related to this programme were 
invited from the outside of the program to ask 
their evaluation and comments. And the members 
from the inside of the programme and group 
leaders joined the committee to decide the policy 
of the programme, to adjust the direction of re 
search between groups and teams, to promote 
new project researches and to plan symposia. The 
committee tries to allot data center-like parts to 
engineering research institutes and to manage 
them efficiently, sharing resources of voluntary 
centers for data processing and distribution. For 
this purpose, database sytem on earth environ 
ment information, database sharing, and re 
sources utilization between researchers via Sci 
ence Information Network will be promoted 
strongly. 
Since this programme is widely open, it is highly 
expected and desirable to have international coop 
erative researches or projects between researchers 
of other countries and our teams or groups. 
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