MOS-1 has three different sensors on-board, which are MESSR, VTIR and MSR. This paper discusses about the utility of MOS-1 sensors for monitoring of ice sheet and sea ice.
Firstly, the movements of Shirase glacier and the calving of ice sheet in Antarctica was analyzed using MOS-1 MESSR data (IFOV : 50 m) of 1989 and Landsat TM data (IFOV : 30 m) of 1988. The result showed that the tongue of Shirase glacier moved approximately 2.7 km and the edge of ice sheet in this area moved about 500 m in 1988-1989.
Secondarily, VTIR images (IFOV : 0.9 km for visible band, 2.7 km for thermal bands) of the Sea of Okhotsk were analyzed, which described the detailed pattern of sea ice distribution in this region. However the cloudy weather of this region reduces the usefulness of VTIR data for ice monitoring. On the other hand, low resolution (32 km for 23 GHz, 23 km for 31 GHz) MSR data has good atmo-spheric penetration in cloudy weather. The coastline of the Main Island of Japan was clearly captured through heavy clouds in the MSR image of Feb. 9, 1988. Finally, simultaneously collected VTIR and MSR data were merged and the multi sensor data set was composed. MSR data analyses of estimating ice concentration, water vapor amount or liquid water contents can be reinforced or verified by using this data set. The false color composite images of visible band (VTIR ch. 1), thermal band (VTIR ch.3) and micro-wave band (MSR ch.1 or ch.3) suggest the utility of VTIR & MSR multi-sensor data set for ice monitoring.