| Instrument | Status/
Accuracy | Instrument Description | Measurement Technology | Timeline |
ACE-FTS
Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE) Fourier Transform Spectrometer | Operational
| Measure and understand the chemical processes that control the distribution of ozone in the Earth's atmosphere, especially at high altitudes. | Limb-scanning IR spectrometer |  |
AIRS
Atmospheric Infra-red Sounder | Operational
| High spectral resolution measurement of temperature and humidity profiles in the atmosphere. Long-wave Earth surface emissivity. Cloud diagnostics. Trace gas profiles. Surface temperatures. | n/a | |
AMI
Advanced Meteorological Imager | Operational
| Continuous monitoring capability for the near real-time generation of high-resolution meteorological products and long-term change analysis of land/sea surface temperature and cloud coverage. | n/a | |
ASI
Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer | Operational
| Atmospheric sounding for weather forecasting. | n/a | |
EPIC
Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera | Operational
| Diurnal measurements of ozone, sulfur dioxide, UV surface radiation, clouds, aerosols and vegetation. | n/a | |
GEMS
Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer | Operational
| Measurements of atmospheric chemistry, precursors of aerosols and ozone in particular, in high temporal and spatial resolution over Asia. | n/a | |
GOME-2
Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment - 2 | Operational
| Measurement of total column amounts and stratospheric and tropospheric profiles of ozone. Also amounts of H20, NO2, OClO, BrO, SO2 and HCHO. | High-resolution nadir-scanning SW spectrometer | |
HIRS/4
High Resolution Infra-red Sounder/4 | Operational
| Atmospheric temperature profiles and data on cloud parameters, humidity soundings, water vapour, total ozone content, and surface temperatures. Same as HIRS/3, with 10 km IFOV. | n/a | |
IASI
Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer | Operational
+/-15 % | Measures tropospheric moisture and temperature, column integrated contents of ozone, carbon monoxide, methane, nitrous oxide and other minor gases which affect tropospheric chemistry. Also measures sea surface and land temperature. | n/a | |
IKFS-2
IR-Fourier spectrometer | Operational
| Atmospheric temperature/humidity profiles, data on cloud parameters, water vapour & ozone column amounts, surface temperature. | High-resolution nadir-scanning IR spectrometer | |
IRAS
InfraRed Atmospheric Sounder | Operational
| Atmospheric sounding for weather forecasting. | n/a | |
MAESTRO
Measurements of Aerosol Extinction in the Stratosphere and Troposphere Retrieved by Occultation | Operational
| Chemical processes involved in the depletion of the ozone layer, and now including a high quality water vapour data product. | Limb-scanning SW spectrometer | |
MLS (EOS-Aura)
Microwave Limb Sounder (EOS-Aura) | Operational
| Measures lower stratospheric temperature and concentration of H2O, O3, ClO, HCl, OH, HNO3, N2O and SO2. | Limb-scanning MW spectrometer | |
MODIS
MODerate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer | Operational
| Data on biological and physical processes on the surface of the Earth and in the lower atmosphere, and on global dynamics. Surface temperatures of land and ocean, chlorophyll fluorescence, land cover measurements, cloud cover (day and night). | n/a | |
MSU-GS
Multispectral scanning imager-radiometer | Operational
| Measurements of cloud cover, cloud top height, precipitation, cloud motion, albedo, vegetation, convection, air mass analysis, tropopause monitoring, stability monitoring, total ozone and surface temperature, fire detection. | n/a | |
MSU-GS/VE
Multispectral scanning imager-radiometer | Operational
| Operational metrology, hydrology, climate monitoring and environmental monitoring | n/a | |
MWHS-2
Improved MicroWave Humidity Sounder | Operational
| Meteorological applications. | n/a | |
NACHOS Hyperspectral Imager
NACHOS Hyperspectral Imager | Operational
| | High-resolution nadir-scanning SW spectrometer | |
OMI
Ozone Measuring Instrument | Operational
| Mapping of ozone columns, key air quality components (NO2, SO2, BrO, OClO and aerosols), measurements of cloud pressure and coverage, global distribution and trends in UV-B radiation. | High-resolution nadir-scanning SW spectrometer | |
OMPS
Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite | Operational
| Measures total amount of ozone in the atmosphere and the ozone concentration variation with altitude. | High-resolution nadir-scanning SW spectrometer | |
OMPS-L
Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite Limb Profiler | Operational
+/-0.05 ppm | Measures high resolution vertical distribution of ozone and aerosols. | Limb-scanning SW spectrometer | |
OSIRIS
Optical Spectrograph and Infra-Red Imaging System | Operational
| Detects aerosol layers and abundance of species such as O3, NO2, OClO, BrO and NO. Consists of spectrograph and IR imager. | Limb-scanning SW spectrometer | |
SAGE-III
Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment | Operational
| Limb-viewing measurements of aerosol, O3, H20, NO2, OClO, NO3, temperature and pressure in the stratosphere, upper troposphere, and mesosphere using solar occultation, lunar occultation and limb scatter measurement techniques. | Limb-scanning SW spectrometer | |
SBUV/2
Solar Backscattter Ultra-Violet Instrument/2 | Operational
| Data on trace gases including vertical profile ozone, and solar irradiance and total ozone concentration measurements. | High-resolution nadir-scanning SW spectrometer | |
SEVIRI
Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infra-Red Imager | Operational
| Measurements of cloud cover, cloud top height, precipitation, cloud motion, vegetation, radiation fluxes, convection, air mass analysis, cirrus cloud discrimination, tropopause monitoring, stability monitoring, total ozone and sea surface temperature. | n/a | |
SMR
Submillimetre Radiometer | Operational
| Measures global distributions of ozone and species of importance for ozone chemistry ClO, HNO3, H2O, N2O, (HO2, H2O2). Measures temperature in the height range 15 - 100 km. | Limb-scanning MW spectrometer | |
Sounder
Sounder | Operational
| Atmospheric soundings and data on atmospheric stability and thermal gradient winds. | n/a | |
TANSO-FTS
Thermal And Near infrared Sensor for carbon Observation - Fourier Transform Spectrometer | Operational
| CO2 and CH4 distribution. | High-resolution nadir-scanning IR spectrometer | |
TANSO-FTS-2
Thermal And Near infrared Sensor for carbon Observation - Fourier Transform Spectrometer-2 | Operational
| CO2, CH4, and CO distribution. | High-resolution nadir-scanning IR spectrometer | |
TOU/SBUS
Total Ozone Unit & Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet Sounder | Operational
| Ozone total column vertical profile measurements. | High-resolution nadir-scanning SW spectrometer | |
UVNS (Sentinel-5 precursor)
TROPOMI | Operational
| Supporting atmospheric composition and air quality monitoring services. | High-resolution nadir-scanning SW spectrometer | |
ALTIUS Instrument
ALTIUS Instrument | Being developed
| A high-resolution 2D imager that observes ozone from side-on, at Earth's limb or atmospheric boundary. This limb-sounding technique allows ozone to be viewed at different altitudes, thereby providing vertical profiles of different ozone concentrations. The instrument uses three independent spectral imagers that operate in the ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared, achieving global coverage in a three-day revisit cycle. | n/a | |
FCI
Flexible Combined Imager | Being developed
| Measurements of cloud cover, cloud top height, precipitation, cloud motion, vegetation, radiation fluxes, convection, air mass analysis, cirrus cloud discrimination, tropopause monitoring, stability monitoring, total ozone and sea surface temperature. | n/a | |
GEOXO Atmospheric Composition
GEO Extended Operations Atmospheric Composition | Being developed
| | n/a | |
IASI-NG
Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer - New Generation | Being developed
+/-5 % | Measures profiles of atmospheric temperature, humidity, ozone, carbon monoxide, columns of methane, nitrous oxide, and other minor gases, and sea, ice, and land surface temperature and emissivity. Provides information on aeorols and cloud: fractional coverage, phase, cloud top height (input to Polar AMVs) and particle size. Prime applications: NWP, AC/AQ, climate. Secondary applications: NWC, land/ocean surface monitoring. IASI-NG will resume IASI role as internationl standard for satellite inter-calibration (GSICS). | n/a | |
IRS
Infra-Red Sounder | Being developed
| Measurements of vertically resolved clear sky atmospheric motion vectors, temperature and water vapour profiles. | n/a | |
Spectrometer (TEMPO)
Spectrometer (TEMPO) | Being developed
| Hourly measurements of air pollution over North America, from Mexico City to the Canadian oil sands, at high spatial resolution. Measurements in ultraviolet and visible wavelengths will provide a suite of products including the key elements of tropospheric air pollution chemistry. Will be part of the first global geostationary constellation for pollution monitoring, along with European and Korean missions now in development. | High-resolution nadir-scanning SW spectrometer | |
TANSO-3
Total Anthropogenic and Natural emissions mapping SpectrOmeter-3 | Being developed
| Global and regional concentration mapping of CO2, CH4, and NO2 for global monitoring of GHG concentrations, verification of emission inventories, and detection of emissions from large sources. | High-resolution nadir-scanning IR spectrometer | |
UVNS (Sentinel-5)
Ultra-violet Visible Near-infrared Shortwave-infrared spectrometer | Being developed
| Supporting atmospheric composition and air quality monitoring services. Measurements of atmospheric trace gases, primarily O3, NO2, SO2, HCHO, CH4 and CO. | High-resolution nadir-scanning SW spectrometer | |
GHMS
Geostationary HiMawari Sounder | Approved
| | n/a | |
UVN
UV-VIS-NIR Sounder | Approved
| Measurements of atmospheric trace gases, mainly O3, NO2, SO2, H2CO. The product list is not yet approved, the accuracy summary column lists the breakthrough user requirements. | High-resolution nadir-scanning SW spectrometer | |
IKFS-3
Advanced Fourier spectrometer | Proposed
| Atmospheric temperature/humidity profiles, data on cloud parameters, water vapour & ozone column amounts, surface temperature. | High-resolution nadir-scanning IR spectrometer | |
UVN (Sentinel-4)
UV-visible- near infrared imaging spectrometer (Sentinel-4) | Proposed
| Supporting atmospheric composition and air quality monitoring services. | High-resolution nadir-scanning SW spectrometer | |
HiRDLS
High Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder | No longer operational
| Measures atmospheric temperature, concentrations of ozone, water vapour, methane, NOx, N2O, CFCs and other minor species, aerosol concentration, location of polar stratospheric clouds and cloud tops. Currently not collecting data on Aqua. | Limb-scanning IR spectrometer | |
TES
Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer | No longer operational
| 3D profiles on a global scale of all infra-red active species from surface to lower stratosphere. Measures greenhouse gas concentrations, tropospheric ozone, acid rain precursors, gas exchange leading to stratospheric ozone depletion. | High-resolution nadir-scanning IR spectrometer | |