The Vietnam National Space Centre under the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) signed an agreement on satellite data exchange in Hanoi on September 18.

The pact aims to assist the DataCube programme in Vietnam, which is an earth-observation-satellite database used for the development of other applications to monitor paddies, forests and water quality.

The JAXA will provide its ScanSAR ALOS-2 images capturing the Vietnamese territory and research projects.

The two sides are also expected to expand cooperation in research and application through the use of earth observation (EO) products provided by satellite ALOS-2 and others as well as data available in DataCube. 

ALOS stands for advanced land observing satellite, and its ScanSAR mode indicates a broad area with observation width of 350km or 490km, and resolution of 100m or 60m respectively.

Data transferred by the Japanese side will be added to the Vietnam DataCube.

The agreement is set to take effect immediately and last for two years.