| Instrument | Status/
Accuracy | Instrument Description | Measurement Technology | Timeline |
AWiFS
Advanced Wide Field Sensor | Operational
| Vegetation and crop monitoring, resource assessment (regional scale), forest mapping, land cover/ land use mapping, and change detection. | n/a |  |
CSG SAR
COSMO-SkyMed di Seconda Generazione SAR | Operational
| All-weather images of ocean, land and ice for monitoring of land surface processes, ice, environmental monitoring, risk management, environmental resources, maritime management, Earth topographic mapping. | Imaging radar (SAR) | |
ETM+
Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus | Operational
| Measures surface radiance and emittance, land cover state, and change (e.g., vegetation type). Used as multi-purpose imagery for land applications. | High resolution optical imager | |
OLI
Operational Land Imager | Operational
| Measures surface radiance, land cover state, and change (e.g., vegetation type). Used as multi-purpose imagery for land applications. | High resolution optical imager | |
OLI-2
Operational Land Imager 2 | Operational
| Measures surface radiance, land cover state, and change (e.g., vegetation type). Used as multi-purpose imagery for land applications. | High resolution optical imager | |
SAR (RADARSAT-2)
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) C band | Operational
| All-weather images of ocean, ice and land surfaces. Used for monitoring of coastal zones, polar ice, sea ice, sea state, geological features, vegetation and land surface processes. | Imaging radar (SAR) | |
SAR (RCM)
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) C band | Operational
| All-weather, C-band data to support ecosystem monitoring, maritime surveillance and disaster management. | Imaging radar (SAR) | |
SAR 2000
Synthetic Aperture Radar - 2000 | Operational
| All-weather images of ocean, land and ice for monitoring of land surface processes, ice, environmental monitoring, risk management, environmental resources, maritime management, Earth topographic mapping. | Imaging radar (SAR) | |
SAR-L
L-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar | Operational
| Land, ocean, emergencies, soil moisture, interferometry, others. | Imaging radar (SAR) | |
TIRS
Thermal Infrared Sensor | Operational
| Measures longwave thermal infrared surface emittance, land cover state, and change. Used as multipurpose imagery for land applications. | n/a | |
TIRS-2
Thermal Infrared Sensor 2 | Operational
| Measures longwave thermal infrared surface emittance, land cover state, and change. Used as multipurpose imagery for land applications. TIRS-2 will adhere to the Landsat 8 TIRS instrument performance specifications but will be built to NASA Class-B instrument standards (including a 5-year design life). | n/a | |
X-Band SAR
X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar | Operational
| High resolution images for monitoring of land surface and coastal processes and for agricultural, geological and hydrological applications. | Imaging radar (SAR) | |
PLATiNO TIR
PLATiNO TIR | Being developed
| Developed by Leonardo and SITAEL, PLATiNO-2 TIR will acquire images that will be used to provide valuable services for territories control and protection such as monitoring waters, glaciers, pollutants, state of crops and vegetation, energy consumption in urban areas. PLATiNO-2 is also equipped with the magnetically shielded HT 100, an improved version of SITAEL electric thruster, making PLATiNO-2 one of the first missions in the world to observe the Earth in the Thermal Infrared from a very low | n/a | |
LandIS
Landsat Next Instrument Suite | Proposed
| Measures surface radiance, land cover state and change (e.g., vegetation type), and longwave termal infrared surface emittance. Used as multi-purpose imagery for land applications. | High resolution optical imager | |
L-Band SAR
L-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar | Proposed
| Global observation of dynamic processes in the bio-, cryo-, geo- and hydrosphere. | Imaging radar (SAR) | |
WSAR
WSAR | Proposed
| High resolution radar measurements of land and ocean features. | Imaging radar (SAR) | |
SWIR
Short Wave Infra Red | No longer considered
| | n/a | |