A series of weather satellites managed by the Japanese Meteorological Agency and NASDA (National Space Development Agency); their indigenous name Himawari means “sunflower.” All have been located in geostationary orbit at 140° E. The first GMS was launched in 1977 and the most recent, GMS-5, on Mar. 18, 1995. GMS-5 is equipped with a VISSR (Visible and Infrared Spin Scan Radiometer), which scans Earth’s surface line by line, each line consisting of a series of pixels. For each pixel the radiometer measures the radiative energy at three different wavelengths bands – one in the visible region and two in the infrared.
