OREANDA-NEWS. Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, the contractor selected to supply the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) with a Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite-2 (GOSAT-2) for launch in 2017, signed a contract to officially begin developing the satellite system. GOSAT-2 will feature a range of highly advanced instruments, including greenhouse gas and cloud/aerosol sensors, which will contribute to the Proactive Diplomatic Strategy for Countering Global Warming announced by the Japanese government at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 19) in Warsaw, Poland last year.

Weighing approximately 1.7 tons, GOSAT-2 will be put into a sun-synchronous sub-recurrent orbit with a design life of five years to observe concentrations and distributions of greenhouse gases and particulates in the global atmosphere.

As a result of the Kyoto Protocol signed at COP3 in Kyoto, Japan in 1997, the Mitsubishi Electric-built IBUKI, also known as GOSAT, was launched as the world's first satellite dedicated to greenhouse gas observations in January 2009. As the next step, Mitsubishi Electric will now develop GOSAT-2 under the joint auspices of Japan's Ministry of the Environment, the National Institute for Environmental Studies and JAXA.

IBUKI's observational data is openly available worldwide to governmental institutions, scientists and even individuals registered online. The data is being used to ascertain the global distribution of carbon dioxide and methane gases and how the sources and sinks of these gases vary by season, year and location. GOSAT-2 will strengthen such observations by using high-performance sensors to provide even more precise measurements.