Remote-sensing technologies enable us to observe the conditions of the Earth's environment from satellites. In order to establish and develop these technologies, which play a significant role today, the Earth Observation Center (EOC) was founded in Hatoyama Town, Hiki County, Saitama Prefecture.
The EOC, located in an area richly endowed with nature, is equipped with large parabolic antennae to receive data from satellites. The data are stored on magnetic tapes in the data archive system, then turned into simple images with the help of our computer system, and examined. It then becomes available not just to laboratories, universities and governments in Japan and around the world, but also to the general public, via DVDs and other media. They are used for various purposes, such as the elucidation of environmental issues, the monitoring of disasters, and surveys of natural resources