Tokyo, Oct 26: A Japanese satellite launched last year to observe global climate change has malfunctioned and stopped transmitting data, possibly due to a power failure, Japan's Space Agency said today.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has established a task force to study the breakdown, but admits recovering use of the satellite will be "extremely difficult," an official said on condition of anonymity.
The Midori II, put into orbit by Japan's H2-a rocket in December, was designed to study global warming by measuring the distribution of clouds, water vapor and ozone in the atmosphere. It was carrying Japanese, US and French instruments on board.
The satellite, which cost 73 billion yen (US $663 million) to develop, had been fully operational from April. It was designed to collect and transmit data to Earth for at least three years. But agency officials said the data flows stopped early Saturday, prompting an analysis that revealed the satellite had switched to power-saving mode and had turned off its data-gathering instruments.
The Midori's II solar energy panels were only generating one-sixth of their normal power, the space agency said.
The failure is the second mishap for the Midori series: authorities lost their first Midori satellite in 1997 when a defective solar panel left it without power. The original version, also designed to observe global climate change, had only been in orbit for about 11 months when it was lost.
Bureau Report