GCOM-W (“Shizuku”): Global Change Observation Mission – Water

Brief Information

Organization
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

About GCOM-W (“Shizuku”): Global Change Observation Mission – Water

The "Global Change Observation Mission" (GCOM) aims to construct, use, and verify systems that enable continuous global-scale observations (for 10 to 15 years) of effective geophysical parameters for elucidating global climate change and water circulation mechanisms.

The GCOM mission is a two series of satellites, GCOM-W for observing water circulation changes and GCOM-C for climate changes. The GCOM-W with a microwave radiometer onboard will observe precipitation, vapor amounts, wind velocity above the ocean, sea water temperature, water levels on land areas, and snow depths.

  • Launch year: 2012
  • Mission: GCOM-W observes precipitation, vapor amounts, wind velocity above the ocean, sea water temperature, water levels on land areas, and snow depths. These data are used worldwide for weather forecast, sea ice monitoring, and climate and water cycle studies.
  • Read more about GCOM-W
Regional Focus
Global