Recent Status Of The Global Change Observation Mission (Gcom) And Its Synergies With Jpss

The Global Change Observation Mission (GCOM) consists of two satellite missions, GCOM-W (Water) and GCOM-C (Climate), and aims to provide comprehensive information of the Essential Climate Variables (ECVs) of atmosphere, ocean, land, cryosphere and ecosystem. The GCOM-W "SHIZUKU" satellite was launched in May 2012, which carries the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2). It achieved its 5-year designed mission life in May 2017 and is currently in extended mission phase. The GCOM-W satellite is joining in the A-train orbit to provide synergies with the other A-train satellites, such as Aqua and Cloudsat. The GCOM-C "SHIKISAI" satellite was launched in December 2017, which carries the Second generation Global Imager (SGLI). SGLI data has been released to public since December 20, 2018. Both AMSR2 and SGLI data are used in operational numerical weather prediction and environmental monitoring to reduce meteorological disasters. Because of its observation capability and observation local time, both GCOM satellites have synergies with the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) program and can contribute to objectives of JPSS.