Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite

The Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite or GOSAT, also known as Ibuki (いぶき, Ibuki, meaning "breath" or "Vitality" in Japanese), is an Earth observation satellite and the world's first satellite dedicated to greenhouse-gas-monitoring. It measures the densities of carbon dioxide and methane from 56,000 locations on the Earth's atmosphere. The GOSAT was developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and launched on January 23, 2009, from the Tanegashima Space Center.Japan's Ministry of the Environment, and National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) use the data to track gases causing the greenhouse effect, and share the data with NASA and other international scientific organizations.

Launch

GOSAT was launched along with seven other piggyback probes using the H-IIA, Japan's primary large-scale expendable launch system, at 3:54 am on January 23, 2009 UTC on Tanegashima, a small island in southern Japan, after a two-day delay due to unfavourable weather. At approximately 16 minutes after liftoff, the separation of Ibuki from the launch rocket was confirmed.