The GOSAT observational data are routinely processed at the GOSAT Data Handling Facility, and the data products are distributed to general users through the GOSAT data product distribution website.

The development of the GOSAT Data Handling Facility (GOSAT DHF) was completed in late 2008, and NIES has been maintaining it for the routine processing of the GOSAT data (Figure 9). Besides being the central resource for data processing, GOSAT DHF is used to collect requests for targeted measurements sent from the qualified researchers (explained in Chapter 7). The organized requests are transferred to JAXA and incorporated in the GOSAT observation plan. JAXA then operates the satellite according to the plan.

The FTS and CAI data the satellite has collected are received and processed at JAXA Tsukuba Space Center first. Then, these data are transferred to GOSAT DHF via Tsukuba WAN, a high-speed wide area network in Tsukuba. GOSAT DHF gathers reference data, such as meteorological data necessary for the higher-level data processing, from cooperating institutions. Using these reference data, the observational data from JAXA are processed into column abundances, sources and sinks, and three-dimensional distributions of CO2 and CH4. Reference data used for validating the data products are also stored in this facility. All together, the amount of the data archived since 2009 will be around 700 terabytes.