| Instrument | Status/
Accuracy | Instrument Description | Measurement Technology | Timeline |
| ABI | Operational | Detects clouds, cloud properties, water vapour, land and sea surface temperatures, dust, aerosols, volcanic ash, fires, total ozone, snow and ice cover, vegetation index. | n/a |  |
| AGRI | Operational | A multiple channel radiation imager, one of the primary instruments aboard FY-4. Technically featured by a precisely designed two-mirror structure, capable of accurate and flexible sensing in two dimensions, and minute-level fast sector scanning. Frequent Earth imaging over 14 bands with off-axis three reflections of the primary optic system. On-board black body available for IR calibrations at very short time intervals. | n/a | |
| AIRS | 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. | Medium-resolution IR spectrometer | |
| AMI | 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 | |
| AMSU-A | Operational | All-weather night-day temperature sounding to an altitude of 45 km. | n/a | |
| AMSU-A | Operational | All-weather night-day temperature sounding to an altitude of 45 km. AMSU-A on Aqua is still partially operational, with 9 of the 15 channels working and collecting data. | n/a | |
| ASTER | Operational | Surface and cloud imaging with high spatial resolution, stereoscopic observation of local topography, cloud heights, volcanic plumes, and generation of local surface digital elevation maps. Surface temperature and emissivity. ASTER SWIR detectors are no longer functioning due to anomalously high SWIR detector temperatures. ASTER SWIR data acquired since April 2008 are not useable, and show saturation of values and severe striping. All attempts to bring the SWIR bands back to life have failed, and no further action is envisioned. | n/a | |
| ATMS | Operational | Collects microwave radiance data that when combined with the CrIS data will permit calculation of atmospheric temperature and water vapour profiles. | n/a | |
| AVHRR/3 | Operational | Measurements of land and sea surface temperature, cloud cover, snow and ice cover, soil moisture and vegetation indices. Data also used for volcanic eruption monitoring. | n/a | |
| CIRC | Operational | Active fire detection. Land surface temperature. | n/a | |
| FCI | 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 | |
| HIRS/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. | Narrow-band channel IR radiometer | |
| IASI | Operational +/-4 | 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. | Medium-resolution IR spectrometer | |
| IKFS-2 | Operational | Atmospheric temperature/humidity profiles, data on cloud parameters, water vapour & ozone column amounts, surface temperature. | n/a | |
| Imager | Operational | Measures cloud cover, atmospheric radiance, winds, atmospheric stability, rainfall estimates. Used to provide severe storm warnings/ monitoring day and night (type, amount, storm features). | n/a | |
| Imager (INSAT 3D) | Operational | Cloud cover, severe storm warnings/monitoring day and night (type, amount, storm features), atmospheric radiance winds, atmospheric stability rainfall. | n/a | |
| IRAS | Operational | Atmospheric sounding for weather forecasting. | Narrow-band channel IR radiometer | |
| IRS | Operational | Earth resources, environmental monitoring, land use. | n/a | |
| MBEI | Operational | Multispectral scanner images of land surface. | n/a | |
| MIRS | Operational | Scanner images of land surface in middle infra-red range. | n/a | |
| MODIS | 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 | 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 | Operational | Operational metrology, hydrology, climate monitoring and environmental monitoring | n/a | |
| MSU-IK-SR | Operational | Parameters of clouds, snow, ice and land cover, vegetation, surface temperature, fire detection. | n/a | |
| MSU-MR | Operational | Parameters of clouds, snow, ice and land cover, vegetation, surface temperature, fire detection. | n/a | |
| MTVZA-GY | Operational | Atmospheric temperature and humidity profiles, precipitation, sea-level wind speed, snow/ice coverage. | n/a | |
| MVIRS | Operational | Measures surface temperature and cloud and ice cover. Used for snow and flood monitoring and surface temperature. | n/a | |
| MWRI | Operational | All weather observations of precipitation, cloud features, vegetation, soil moisture sea ice, etc. | Multi-purpose imaging MW radiometer | |
| PHyTIR | Operational +/-1 | This project will use a high-resolution thermal infrared radiometer to measure plant evapotranspiration, the loss of water from growing leaves and evaporation from the soil. | n/a | |
| SEVIRI | 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 | |
| SGLI | Operational +/-2.5 | Medium resolution multi-spectral imaging of land, ocean and atmosphere. SGLI-VNR is an optical sensor capable of multi-channel nadir observation at wavelengths from near-UV to NIR and forward or backward polarization observation at red and near infrared wavelengths (Push-broom scanning). SGLI-IRS is an optical sensor capable of multi-channel nadir observation at wavelengths from SWIR to TIR wavelengths (Cross-track scanning). | n/a | |
| SLSTR | Operational | Marine and land services. | n/a | |
| Sounder | Operational | Atmospheric soundings and data on atmospheric stability and thermal gradient winds. | Narrow-band channel IR radiometer | |
| TIRS | Operational | Measures longwave thermal infrared surface emittance, land cover state, and change. Used as multipurpose imagery for land applications. | Narrow-band channel IR radiometer | |
| TIRS-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). | Narrow-band channel IR radiometer | |
| VIIRS | Operational | Global observations of land, ocean, and atmosphere parameters: cloud/weather imagery, sea-surface temperature, ocean colour, land surface vegetation indices. | n/a | |
| VIRR | Operational | Multispectral Visible and Infra-red Scan Radiometer. | n/a | |
| VISSR-2 | Operational | Meteorological. | n/a | |
| ASLSTR | Being developed | Dual-view conical scanner with channels in the VIS, NIR SWIR TIR, supporting a wide range of Marine, Land, Atmosphere and Climate Services. Provides enhanced continutity of SST and LST measurements from SLSTR and enhanced synergy with AOLCI | n/a | |
| GXI | Being developed | Detects clouds, cloud properties, water vapour, land and sea surface temperatures, dust, aerosols, volcanic ash, fires, total ozone, snow and ice cover, vegetation index. | n/a | |
| GXS | Being developed | | n/a | |
| IASI-NG | Being developed +/-1 | 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). | Medium-resolution IR spectrometer | |
| IRS | Being developed | Measurements of vertically resolved clear sky atmospheric motion vectors, temperature and water vapour profiles. | Medium-resolution IR spectrometer | |
| Land Surface Temperature Radiometer | Being developed | VNIR/SWIR/TIR radiometer with three independent focal planes fed by a single telescope to acquire images of all land and coastal areas with high radiometric accuracy and spatial resolution. Acquistion are during day and night in TIR bands and during day in VNIR/SWIR bands.
Monitoring evapotranspiration (ET) rate at European field scale by capturing the variability of Land Surface Temperature (LST) (and hence ET) enabling more robust estimates of field-scale water productivity. Supporting a range of additional services benefitting from TIR observations (e.g. soil composition, coastal zone management, High-Temperature Events (HTE), urban heat islands). | n/a | |
| METimage | Being developed | Operational multi spectral imager for meteorological EPS-SG VIS/IR Imaging Mission (VII): imagery data for global and regional NWP, NWC, and climate monitoring with information on LST, SST, clouds coverage, height and micro-physics, land surfaces (vegetation, snow/ice, fire), water vapour column, aerosol and atmospheric motion vectors. Provides collocated cloud mask, height & characterisation as well as intra-pixel heterogeneity to other EPS-SG missions (with larger footprint). | n/a | |
| OTTER Instrument on SBG-TIR | Being developed | Thermal radiometer to provide information on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, hydrology, weather, climate, and solid Earth. | n/a | |
| TIR | Approved | 1) Ecosystem stress and water use (i.e. monitoring of energy and water budgets of the continental biosphere);2) Urban (i.e. climatology and monitoring of fluxes of urban surfaces); 3) Sea Surface Temperature on approximately 200km coastal band. | n/a | |
| Advanced MSU-MR | Proposed | Parameters of clouds, snow, ice and land cover, vegetation, surface temperature, fire detection. | n/a | |
| IKFS-3 | Proposed | Atmospheric temperature/humidity profiles, data on cloud parameters, water vapour & ozone column amounts, surface temperature. | n/a | |
| MTVZA-GY-MP | Proposed | Atmospheric temperature and humidity profiles, precipitation, sea-level wind speed, snow/ice coverage. | n/a | |
| PLATiNO TIR | No longer considered | 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 | Narrow-band channel IR radiometer | |
| TES | 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. | n/a | |