The ALOS satellite sensor had three remote-sensing instruments:
- The Panchromatic Remote-sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping (PRISM) and for digital elevation models (DEMs)
- The Advanced Visible and Near Infrared Radiometer type 2 (AVNIR-2) for precise land coverage observation
- The Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR) for day-and-night and all-weather land observation