| Nobuyoshi Fugono |
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Questions & Answers
Questioner 1:
You started the research in 1970's, and realized your goal in 1997 - so you continued for more than 20 years. It is a very excellent achievement. At what point did you believe firmly that you would be successful, and what was the main reason you believed it?
Fugono:
Please remember that the first data from our rain radar on the ground was obtained more than a quarter century ago, when the engineering level of electronics were at the level I described earlier. As you can see there is a huge gap between the oldest and the newest.
We couldn't image the current great results, and weren't confident to achieve installing such a big ground radar onto a satellite.
Maybe, I became confident at the end of '97, when the TRMM was successfully launched and the first data were obtained. Until then I had no confidence.
I have been engaged in a variety of research activities in the field of space-related research for over 40 years, and have worked on nearly 100 sounding rockets and more than 10 satellites. In all honesty, in no more than half the cases were the missions completely successful.
There were various troubles. For examples, the rockets were launched successfully but the instruments didn't work well; the nose corn didn't open, or the telemeters didn't transmit data, and so on. In fact, the TRMM is the only one that performed more than we expected, I would say.
Chairman:
Now it is said the 21st century is the 'era of aqua,' and in many countries there are plans to observe rain data using satellites like this. Please tell us about what kind of research will be carried in CRL (Communications Research Laboratory).
Fugono:
I retired from CRL nine and a half years ago, so I have no right or intention to speak for them. Now the TRMM follow-on project - GPM (Global Precipitation Measurement) - a joint project of the USA and Japan has been planning. I hear that the GPM will carry the dual-frequency radar, which we could not make it on the TRMM for many reasons.
CRL is at the top of that technology area in the world. From hereon we can expect to see the previously unseen by radio wave, for example the things we are unable to see using visible and infrared sensors - millimeter waves and higher would be able to detect not only water but also the states of global environmental pollution or the elements causing pollution.
In CRL there are relatively few researchers who study the global environment or meteorology, but there are many researchers who have very high potential in the field of radio waves and measurement technology using radio waves. So, I suppose they work to develop new instruments or do the studies on the measuring technologies using them.
Questioner 2:
We, in meteorology, knew the ground radar very well, and we understood well the importance of measuring typhoons or rainfall, and also we thought about measuring rainfall in the areas where people live and droughts or floods occur. But in the '70s, we meteorologists weren't thinking that it would be very important to measure global rainfall by including sea surface spaceborne radar. How did you come up with the idea to measure global rainfall by spaceborne radar at that time? And did you really believed to be able to install ground radars on satellites at the beginning?
Fugono:
For the first point, I didn't think such profound things from the first time. One reason was that, as a post project to satellite communication, the quantitative measurement of rainfall by radar seemed to be most suitable because we had a plenty of experience and a good performance. And rainfall was one of the important data that had not been measured globally by remote sensing as well as air pressure. So we chose rainfall measurement.
Another reason was that the impression I received from the pictures obtained by ERTS was very strong and pushed me forward. I had an indistinct feeling that if we looked out over this planet from the space, something unseen would be seen and unknown would be able to get known in the future. I had little idea at the time how things would turn out. I only insisted my honor at any cost to do what nobody had yet achieved and that kept me taking the initiative.
And second point, though I didn't think that the big ground radar could be installed on satellites as it was, I thought it was possible to make radars of a smaller size, suitable for spaceborne application in sometime, future. Judging from the technology and experience at the time of Japan, however, I had little confidence when it would be available.
I'd like to say today that even if the project was completed, even if the rainfall came to be measured globally, it would not have been useful without users. I thought that the main user should be a meteorologist. I should apologize to anyone from the Japan Meteorological Agency, if they are attending today - Prof. Sumi used to work there - but the JMA is the organization of routine work and was very conservative with less mobility. I asked my colleague Dr. Nakamura, now a professor at Nagoya University, to introduce me to an appropriate researcher. He introduced me to Prof. Matsuno as his teacher. One of the main reasons for my success is that I got support of Prof. Matsuno.
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