We study advanced remote sensing technology and develop instruments that can measure atmospheric wind, water vapor, and precipitation with high temporal and spatial resolutions. One of their applications is to build a system that can detect localized heavy rainfalls, so-called "guerrilla rainstorms", and tornados much earlier than the current operational systems. We also make research in spaceborne radars, lidars, and submillimeter spectroscopic sensors that measure global distributions of precipitation, clouds, and winds in order to improve accuracy in global climate/weather monitoring and forecasting.
We are, moreover, engaged in the development of an airborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) which can produce images of ground surfaces and detect their small variations. Our research includes advanced analytical techniques on SAR images as well. Data obtained by SAR are utilized to collect geographical information associated with natural incidents such as volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.
There is the related "Okinawa Electromagnetic Technology Center".
Observational Data
・Portal Site for NICT Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radars (Japanese)
・Portal Site for NICT Ground-based Radars and Weather Sensors (Japanese)
News
We conducted aircraft observations of the Kumamoto Earthquake disaster area by Pi-SAR2 on 17th April, 2016. Slips on faults and many landslides were detected from … (Japanese)
The Precipitation Radar (PR) onboard Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite can measure the three dimensional structure of rainfall global scale. …
A mirage is a occurring phenomenon in layers of different atmospheric temperature.
This picture is apparition mirage in night off the west coast of Okinawa on February, 2012. …
A view from the top of PANDA allows us to enjoy its beautiful color of the sea below our eyes. If you climb up PANDA, you will find a mysterious cave called "Apo-gama" by the local people …
NICT Okinawa welcomes visitors for facility tour and exhibition hall.
Visitors will find plenty of interesting contents such as our latest research facilities …
The Okinawa Electromagnetic Technology Center was opened to the public on November 22, 2014.
We had tours of Phased Array Radar and …
Research Activities
Spaceborne Radar Technology
The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) is an international cooperative mission to measure global precipitation accurately and frequently. The Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) on the GPM core satellite has been jointly developed by NICT and JAXA.
The Earth Clouds, Aerosols and Radiation Explorer (Earth CARE) will observe clouds and aerosols simultaneously and thus improve estimates of global warming. NICT and JAXA are cooperatively developing the Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) that is the world first spaceborne Doppler weather radar.
Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar Technology
The Pi-SAR2 is an airborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) that can be used to observe the surface of the earth with a large swath width (5 km) and high spatial resolution (30 cm)，even in night and/or in bad weather conditions.
Ground-based Weather Radar Technology
In the Okinawa Electromagnetic Technology Center, advanced radar signal processing has been studied to develop new techniques besides ground validation of satellite-borne radars by using a polarimetric rain radar, COBRA, and a 443 MHz wind profiler.
A phased-array weather radar for measuring the 3-dimensional structures of rapidly-developed localized heavy rainfall systems within 10 seconds has been developed.
Development of Phased Array Weather Radar（2.38 MB）
Development of Next-generation Wind Profiler Radars（2.38 MB）
Lidar Technology
Lidar, that is a kind of radar but using infrared or visible light, can detect invisible small particles, that is aerosol, in atmosphere. Lidar can contribute environment monitoring, and furthermore provide wind information by Doppler measurement of reflected signal from particles.
Terahertz Sensing Technology
Terahertz wave, which has been unexplored frequency region and does not propagate a long distance, has potential for detection of very small fraction of atmospheric constituents with sensors on platform in higher altitude or space.
Outcome etc.
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