GOSAT Plugin: Greenhouse Gas Data (Part 1)

Introduction

The GOSAT plugin is a plugin that visualizes data from the Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT, “Ibuki”) series in QGIS and supports simple analysis. You can search for and download the datasets available on Tellus, then visualize the data in various ways, such as animating it over time or graphing the values at any location.

This article covers the GOSAT plugin from installation to basic settings. Part 2 shows how to visualize actual data. The content should also help GIS beginners who are interested in monitoring the global environment or want to start analyzing satellite data, so read both parts.

Sorabatake has also published the article “GOSAT Data Still Contains Hidden Information and Insights”: Asking the National Institute for Environmental Studies About the Achievements, Prospects, and Use of the GOSAT (Ibuki) Series, in which three researchers from the institute talk about the achievements, prospects, and uses of the GOSAT series. Read it as well.

What you can do with the GOSAT plugin

Data from the GOSAT series is a very important source of information for monitoring the global environment, but satellite data is generally hard for non-experts to work with. To make it available to a wider range of users, Tellus developed a dedicated tool that runs in QGIS: the GOSAT plugin.

With this plugin, you can search for and download GOSAT series data and run simple analyses, all in one place. It is built around concrete use scenarios, such as “seeing increases and decreases in greenhouse gases across the whole Earth as an area” and “seeing the distribution of measured greenhouse gas values as points.”

Note: The available data is that of the GOSAT (Ibuki) series provided on Tellus, a satellite data platform. Some datasets in the GOSAT (Ibuki) series are currently unpublished or being prepared for release.

Display global distribution maps

The plugin shows the global concentration distribution of greenhouse gases, such as CO₂ and CH₄, as a color map, so you can visualize the trend for the whole Earth as an area. With the latest observation data, you can grasp the concentration distribution in the atmosphere intuitively.

Time series analysis for points and areas

When you specify any point of interest (POI) or rectangular area of interest (AOI) on the map, a graph shows the latest greenhouse gas concentration at that location and how it changes over time. You can see the concentration level of a specific city or region, and you can also follow trends such as seasonal variation and year-to-year change intuitively.

Check data coverage

You can also find out when and where the GOSAT series satellites made their observations. When the GOSAT plugin displays observation point data (L2 products), it plots the points the satellite passed over on the map.

Set up the environment for the GOSAT plugin

First, set up the environment for using the GOSAT plugin. The steps are as follows.

1. Install QGIS
2. Download and install the GOSAT plugin
3. Register a Tellus account and issue an API token
4. Set the API token in the GOSAT plugin

Details are also available in the “GOSAT Plugin User Manual (PDF),” so refer to it as well.

1. Install QGIS

First, install QGIS. The GOSAT plugin has been verified to work with QGIS 3.34, so use this recommended version in general.

At the time of writing, QGIS 3.40 is provided as the long-term release (LTR). To install a specific older version of QGIS, see the following article.

2. Download and install the GOSAT plugin

Next, get the GOSAT plugin file that Tellus provides, and install it in QGIS.

First, go to the Tellus GOSAT special site. Scroll down to the heading Step 1: Download QGIS and the GOSAT plugin (Step1 QGISとGOSATプラグインのダウンロード) and click GOSAT Plugin Terms of Service (GOSATプラグインサービス約款).

Review the GOSAT plugin terms of service, then click the GOSAT plugin download URL at the bottom of the terms to download the plugin's ZIP file. Clicking the URL downloads the ZIP file.

To install the plugin, start QGIS. From the Start menu, select All apps, then click QGIS Desktop 3.34.

Once QGIS has started, install the plugin you downloaded in the steps above. With QGIS running, open Plugins → Manage and Install Plugins from the menu.

In the Plugin Manager dialog, click Install from ZIP at the lower left. Next, click the ... button, select the ZIP file you downloaded, and click Install Plugin.

A security warning appears. Click Yes.

When the installation finishes, QGIS adds the GOSAT plugin icon to the toolbar, and GOSATPlugin also appears in the Plugins menu in the menu bar.

The plugin installation is now complete.

3. Register a Tellus account and set up an API token

To get data with the GOSAT plugin, you need a Tellus API token. If you do not have a Tellus account yet, create one by following the guide below.

After you create the account, log in to Tellus and issue an API token. The details are on the page below, so follow it to issue the token.

When the token is issued as in the following image, click the copy button on the right to copy it.

4. Set the API token in the GOSAT plugin

Return to the QGIS window and open the GOSAT plugin settings dialog from the menu bar: Plugins → GOSATPlugin → Settings (設定画面).

Paste the token you copied into the token input field and click OK. Once the token is set correctly, the plugin can access the GOSAT data on Tellus from then on.

That completes the setup of the GOSAT plugin.

Conclusion

This article explained how to install the GOSAT plugin and configure its basic settings.

Part 2 is published on Sorabatake. It describes in detail the steps for getting actual GOSAT data and visualizing the distribution of greenhouse gases, and how to interpret the data. Use the GOSAT plugin to easily access and analyze important data for monitoring the global environment.

Data sources

• GSI Tiles (Geospatial Information Authority of Japan)
• ©Tellus Original data provided by JAXA/NIES/MOE