Toshiyoshi Kimura

Toshiyoshi Kimura

Profile

  • Earned a Bachelor of Science from Kyoto University and completed the doctoral program in Earth and Planetary Science at the Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, earning a Doctor of Science.
  • Formerly worked in the Space Development Promotion Office at Fujitsu Limited.
  • Held several positions at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), including Project Manager for the EarthCARE/Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) project in Space Technology Directorate I and Head of the Sensor Research Office at the Earth Observation Research Center.
    Currently serves as a Senior Research and Development Engineer in the Optical Synthetic-aperture Collaborative Advanced Research in Japan (OSCAR-J) Project at JAXA’s Research and Development Directorate.
  • Visiting Researcher in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo.

Message

Utilizing Spaceborne Data and Exploring the Potential of IT

The space sector is now following a trajectory similar to that of computing in its early days.Human activity has expanded from land to the sea and the skies, bringing corresponding advances in society and our understanding of the world.Today, this sphere of activity extends beyond the atmosphere into outer space.More than 10,000 satellites orbiting at altitudes of 400 kilometers or higher circle the Earth more than one and a half times during a Shinkansen journey between Tokyo and Osaka, continuously transmitting data to the ground.Yet we have not fully harnessed this vast amount of data.The current state of the space sector closely resembles the early days of IT, when hardware advanced ahead of the methods needed to make effective use of it.Earth observation data received from satellites are merely collections of numerical values unless they are properly processed.Transforming these data into valuable information requires not only software expertise but also an understanding of the physical mechanisms underlying the observations, including how the instruments work and how measurements are obtained.Through my lectures, I hope to share this knowledge with you and explore together how spaceborne data can be put to practical use in society.

Field of Specialization

  • Satellite Remote Sensing
  • Atmospheric Physics (Radiative Processes)
  • Research, Development, and Management of Satellite-Borne Instruments

Business Performance

Awards

  • 2023 Paper Award, Remote Sensing Society of Japan (official English award title to be confirmed)

Books

  • Laser Handbook, 2nd Edition (contributing author), Ohmsha, 2005.
  • Encyclopedia of Remote Sensing (contributing author), The Remote Sensing Society of Japan, Maruzen Publishing, 2022.
  • Comprehensive Remote Sensing (contributing author), Elsevier, 2025.
  • Others

Selected Publications

  • Nakajima, T., Tsukamoto, M., Tsushima, Y., Numaguti, A., & Kimura, T. (2000). Modeling of the radiative process in an atmospheric general circulation model. Applied Optics, 39(27), 4869-4878.
  • Kimura, T., Kondo, K., Kumagai, H., Kuroiwa, H., Ishida, C., Oki, R., ... & Nakajima, T. (2003, April). EarthCARE-Earth clouds, aerosol and radiation explorer: it's objectives and Japanese sensor designs. In Remote Sensing of Clouds and the Atmosphere VII (Vol. 4882, p. 510). SPIE.
  • Kimura, T., Tange, Y., Tanaka, K., Itoh, N., Matsuyama, H., Okamura, Y., ... & Honda, Y. (2004, November). Concept study of multispectral imager for next generation. In Sensors, Systems, and Next-Generation Satellites VIII (Vol. 5570, pp. 54-61). SPIE.
  • Bezy, J. L., Leibrandt, W., Heliere, A., Silvestrin, P., Lin, C. C., Ingmann, P., Kimura, T. & Kumagai, H. (2005, August). The ESA earth explorer EarthCARE mission. In Earth Observing Systems X (Vol. 5882, pp. 143-154). SPIE.
  • Kameyama, S., Imaki, M., Hirano, Y., Ueno, S., Kawakami, S., Sakaizawa, D., Kimura, T. & Nakajima, M. (2011). Feasibility study on 1.6 μm continuous-wave modulation laser absorption spectrometer system for measurement of global CO2 concentration from a satellite. Applied optics, 50(14), 2055-2068.
  • Kimura, T., Imai, T., Sakaizawa, D., Murooka, J., & Mitsuhashi, R. (2017, July). The overview and status of vegetation Lidar mission, MOLI. In 2017 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS) (pp. 4228-4230). IEEE.
  • Kimura, T., Mizutani, T., Shirasawa, Y., Sakai, M., Kumeta, A., Sato, S., ... & Iwasaki, A. (2019, July). Geostationary Earth observation satellite with large segmented telescope. In IGARSS 2019-2019 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (pp. 5895-5897). IEEE.
  • Kimura, T. (2021). High-temporal- and high-spatial-resolution Earth observation using a large segmented telescope from geostationary orbit. Journal of the Remote Sensing Society of Japan, 41(2), 282–286. [English title translated from the Japanese title.]
  • Kawashima, T., Iwasaki, A., Kimura, T., Mizutani, T., & Uematsu, A. (2022). Unified interpretation of passive Earth observation sensor performance. Journal of the Remote Sensing Society of Japan, 42(4), 291–309. [English title translated from the Japanese title.]
  • Approximately 180 additional publications.

Research and Development Achievements

  • At Fujitsu Limited
    • Development of the Get Away Special microgravity experiment apparatus carried aboard NASA’s Space Shuttle.
    • Development of experimental equipment for the Space Flyer Unit (SFU).
    • Development of the Global Imager (GLI) aboard the Advanced Earth Observing Satellite II (ADEOS-II).
  • At the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
    • Research on the Experiment for Lidar Integration into Satellite (ELISE), a compact satellite-borne Mie-scattering lidar experiment.
    • Research on satellite-borne Fourier-transform spectrometers (FTS), which laid the groundwork for the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT).
    • Preliminary research for the Global Change Observation Mission (GCOM-C/GCOM-W) satellites and the EarthCARE/CPR mission.
    • Served as the Japanese Project Manager for EarthCARE, a joint Earth observation satellite mission developed by JAXA and the European Space Agency (ESA).
    • Preliminary research for the vegetation lidar Earth observation mission MOLI, planned for deployment on the International Space Station (ISS).
    • Organized a collaborative graduate-level lecture program between JAXA and The University of Tokyo in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Graduate School of Engineering.
    • Preliminary research on geostationary optical satellites.