The research and education activities in Microwave Remote Sensing Laboratory (MRSL) or Josaphat Laboratory, Center for Environmental Remote Sensing (CEReS), Chiba University, Japan covers research themes as below. This laboratory promotes the international level in education and research to develop earth and planets observation technology and science in microwave remote sensing field, especially development of next generation of synthetic aperture radar, synthetic aperture radar signal processing techniques for aircraft and microsatellite onboard.

	Development of Circularly Polarized Synthetic Aperture Radar for Aircraft and Microsatellite
	This laboratory developes many types of next generation sensors for earth and planets surface observation, i.e. Circularly Polarized Synthetic Aperture Radar (CP-SAR), CP Scatterometer (CPS). These sensor are designed for aircraft and microsatellite platforms with frequency 1.27 GHz (L Band). These sensor could be employed to retrieve detail information of earth surface, including natural resources or minerals, vegetation, city mapping, snow area (north and south poles) etc. Especially, this CP-SAR Microsatellite constellation (planned 5 satellites) will launched 5 year later to obtain near real-time SAR image of our planet. We join research with staffs of University of Tokyo, Nihon University, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Sentencia Corporation etc. Fig.1. Image picture of circularly polarized synthetic aperture radar onboard small satellite developing by our laboratory　[Newspaper article]
	Global vegetation mapping using synthetic aperture radar images
	Fig 2. JERS-1 SAR data that processed in our laboratory for Level 0 to higher level product. This laboratory proposes many methods to monitor the landcover of earth surface by using microwave (L, C, and X bands) to know the characteristics of vegetation, especially polarimetric and interferometric SAR (PolInSAR) techniques are employed to retrieve the tree informations, including 3D tree mapping. Some articles relating our research could be find in link.
	Research theme in Microwave Remote Sensing Laboratory (Josaphat Laboratory) as below. Development of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) (1) Circularly Polarized Synthetic Aperture Radar (CP-SAR) for Aircraft and Microsatellite onboard (2) Compact CP-SAR for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Fig. 3(a) Concept of Circularly Polarized Synthetic Aperture Radar onboard Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (CP-SAR UAV) : Josaphat Laboratory Experiment Vehicle (JX-1) Fig. 3 (b)　Synthetic Aperture Radar onboard Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (SAR UAV) : Josaphat Laboratory Experiment Vehicle (JX-1) Fig. 3 (b)　Development of array antenna for Synthetic Aperture Radar onboard Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (SAR UAV) and small satellite Aircraft onboard SAR system (1) Automatic Flight Controller (2) Flight Communication System (3) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) (4) Data Transmission and Image Processing (5) SAR signal processing Microsatellite onboard SAR System (1) Navigation System / Altitude Controller (2) Central Command System (3) Power System (Solar Panel, Battery, etc) (4) Communication System (S band) (5) Ground Transmitter and Receiver System (6) Data transmission　(Downlink X band) (7) Inflatable antenna (8) Antenna - Solar Array Panel (SAP) deployment system SAR Measurement System (1) Near Field - Far Field Measurement System (Anechoic Chamber) (2) Out-door SAR Measurement System (3) Circularly Polarized Propagation and Scattering Analysis (4) Two and Three Dimension Electric Field Measurement Systems Fig 4. Measurement System for Synthetic Aperture Radar and small satellite Image Signal Processing (1) SAR Signal Processing (2) Interferometric SAR (InSAR) (3) Polarimetric SAR (PolSAR) (4) Circularly Polarized SAR (CP-SAR) (5) SAR image filtering methods and its applications (6) Scattering analysis Fig 5. Subsidence monitoring using interferometric SAR Theory, Measurement Technique and Basic Experiment (1) Microwave Propagation and Scattering Analysis (Finite Difference Time Domain - FDTD, Finite Element Method - FEM, Method of Moment - MoM, Constrained Interpolation Profile - CIP and other original methods) (2) Circularly Polarized Propagation and Scattering Analysis Fig. 6. Simulation of electromagnetic waves scattering on tree trunk by using Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) (3) Development of GPS antenna for rocket tracking (Joint research with Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology and ISAS JAXA) Fig. 7. Our original antenna design for GPS Antenna for rocket tracking SAR Image Applications (1) Disaster Monitoring System (2) Snow and Frozen Road Monitoring (3) Tropical Forest Monitoring (4) Geological Applications (5) Desert Environment Monitoring (Land degradation) (6) North pole shipping route monitoring Fig 8. Eastern Sahara Desert : (a) L-band SAR, HH polarization (b) Landsar ETM+ (c) Merged image from PCA fusion Fig 9. Monitoring of Miyakejima Volcano activities by using ALOS PALSAR DInSAR Microwave Radiometer (1) L band Microwave Radiometer Fig. 10. Radiometer experiment to investigate the polarization characteristics of snow and ice Fig. 11. Extraction of old Japanese Army maps for spatial data sharing system - CEReS Gaia - to observe the change of Asian region in 100 years (example above : Jakarta city, Indonesia) Ancient and Modern Earth Environment Analysis (1) Asian Ancient Environment Analysis by using Old Maps and Satellite Images (2) Environmental Information Analysis by using Old Literature
Detail information relating our activities could be asked to the contact person.