ADEOS I
Encyclopedia
ADEOS I was an Earth observation satellite
Earth observation satellite
Earth observation satellites are satellites specifically designed to observe Earth from orbit, similar to reconnaissance satellites but intended for non-military uses such as environmental monitoring, meteorology, map making etc....

 launched by NASDA in 1996. The mission's Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

 name, Midori, means "green".

The mission ended in July 1997 after the satellite sustained structural damage to the solar panel array. Its successor, ADEOS II
ADEOS II
ADEOS II was an Earth observation satellite launched by NASDA, NASA and CNES in December 2002. Its Japanese name was Midori 2, and it was the successor to the 1996 mission ADEOS I...

, was launched in 2002. Like the first mission, it ended after less than a year – also following solar panel malfunctions.

Purpose

ADEOS was designed to observe Earth's environmental changes, focusing on global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...

, depletion of the ozone layer, and deforestation
Deforestation
Deforestation is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a nonforest use. Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, or urban use....

.

On board the satellite are eight instruments developed by NASDA, NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

, and CNES
CNES
The is the French government space agency . Established under President Charles de Gaulle in 1961, its headquarters are located in central Paris and it is under the supervision of the French Ministries of Defence and Research...

. The Ocean Color and Temperature Scanner (OCTS) is a whisk broom
Whisk broom scanner
A whisk broom or spotlight sensor is a technology for obtaining satellite images with optical cameras. It is used for passive remote sensing from space. In a whisk broom sensor, a mirror scans across the satellite’s path , reflecting light into a single detector which collects data one pixel at a...

 radiometer
Radiometer
A radiometer is a device for measuring the radiant flux of electromagnetic radiation. Generally, the term radiometer denotes an infrared radiation detector, yet it also includes detectors operating on any electromagnetic wavelength....

 developed by NASDA. The Advanced Visible and Near Infrared Radiometer (AVNIR), an optoelectronic scanning radiometer with CCD detectors, was also produced by NASDA. The NASA Scatterometer
Scatterometer
A radar scatterometer is designed to determine the normalized radar cross section of the surface. Scatterometers operate by transmitting a pulse of microwave energy towards the Earth's surface and measuring the reflected energy. A separate measurement of the noise-only power is made and...

 (NSCAT), developed with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center located in the San Gabriel Valley area of Los Angeles County, California, United States. The facility is headquartered in the city of Pasadena on the border of La Cañada Flintridge and Pasadena...

, used fan-beam Doppler signals
Doppler radar
A Doppler radar is a specialized radar that makes use of the Doppler effect to produce velocity data about objects at a distance. It does this by beaming a microwave signal towards a desired target and listening for its reflection, then analyzing how the frequency of the returned signal has been...

 to measure wind speeds over bodies of water. The Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) was built by CNES
CNES
The is the French government space agency . Established under President Charles de Gaulle in 1961, its headquarters are located in central Paris and it is under the supervision of the French Ministries of Defence and Research...

 to study changes to Earth's ozone layer
Ozone layer
The ozone layer is a layer in Earth's atmosphere which contains relatively high concentrations of ozone . This layer absorbs 97–99% of the Sun's high frequency ultraviolet light, which is potentially damaging to the life forms on Earth...

. The Polarization and Directionality of the Earth's Reflectance (POLDER) device was also developed by CNES, and was also launched on ADEOS II
ADEOS II
ADEOS II was an Earth observation satellite launched by NASDA, NASA and CNES in December 2002. Its Japanese name was Midori 2, and it was the successor to the 1996 mission ADEOS I...

. The Improved Limb Atmospheric Spectrometer (ILAS) was developed by NASDA and the Environment Agency of Japan, and used grating
Diffraction grating
In optics, a diffraction grating is an optical component with a periodic structure, which splits and diffracts light into several beams travelling in different directions. The directions of these beams depend on the spacing of the grating and the wavelength of the light so that the grating acts as...

 spectrometer
Spectrometer
A spectrometer is an instrument used to measure properties of light over a specific portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, typically used in spectroscopic analysis to identify materials. The variable measured is most often the light's intensity but could also, for instance, be the polarization...

s to measure the properties of trace gas
Trace gas
A trace gas is a gas which makes up less than 1% by volume of the Earth's atmosphere, and it includes all gases except nitrogen and oxygen . The most abundant trace gas at 0.934% is argon, which is being continually produced by radioactive decay of in the earth's rocks...

es using solar occultation
Occultation
An occultation is an event that occurs when one object is hidden by another object that passes between it and the observer. The word is used in astronomy . It can also refer to any situation wherein an object in the foreground blocks from view an object in the background...

. The Retroreflector in Space (RIS) and Interferometric Monitor for Greenhouse Gases (IMG) were both developed by Japan, and studied atmospheric trace gases and greenhouse gas
Greenhouse gas
A greenhouse gas is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone...

es respectively.

Failure

On 28 August 1996, the satellite adjusted its attitude
Flight dynamics
Flight dynamics is the science of air vehicle orientation and control in three dimensions. The three critical flight dynamics parameters are the angles of rotation in three dimensions about the vehicle's center of mass, known as pitch, roll and yaw .Aerospace engineers develop control systems for...

to control its orbit. As a result of this manoeuvre, the solar panel received sunlight from the rear. This caused the solar paddle mast to expand and the panel blanket to contract, placing tension on a soldered joint on the paddle, which eventually broke.

The final communication from the satellite was received at 07:21 UTC on 30 June 1997, 9 months after launch.

Investigation

The subsequent investigation into the mission's failure identified that a solder point on the solar cell paddle had broken down, causing a malfunction.
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