| Instrument | Status/
Accuracy | Instrument Description | Measurement Technology | Timeline |
AEISS
Advanced Electronic Image Scanning System | Operational
| High resolution imager for land applications of cartography and disaster monitoring. | High resolution optical imager |  |
AEISS-A
Advanced Electronic Image Scanning System-A | Operational
| High resolution imager for land applications of cartography and disaster monitoring. | High resolution optical imager | |
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 | |
C-Band SAR
C-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar | Operational
| Marine core services, land monitoring and emergency services. Monitoring sea ice zones and arctic environment. Surveillance of marine environment, monitoring land surface motion risks, mapping of land surfaces (forest, water and soil, agriculture), mapping in support of humanitarian aid in crisis situations. | 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 | |
High Resolution Optical Sensor (CAS500-1)
High Resolution Optical Sensor (CAS500-1) | Operational
| Cartography, land use and planning | High resolution optical imager | |
HRMX
High Resolution Multi Spectral | Operational
| For crops and vegetation dynamics, natural resources census, disaster management and large scale mapping of themes. | High resolution optical imager | |
HSI
Hyperspectral Imager | Operational
| Detailed monitoring and characterization of rock and soil targets, vegetation, inland and coastal waters on a global scale. | High resolution optical imager | |
HSI-2 (HJ-2A)
Hyper Spectrum Imager 2 | Operational
| Hyperspectral measurements for environment and disaster management operations. | n/a | |
HYC
HYperspectral Camera | Operational
| Hyperspectral data for complex land ecosystem studies. | n/a | |
LISS-III (Resourcesat)
Linear Imaging Self Scanner - III (Resourcesat) | Operational
| Data used for vegetation type assessment, resource assessment, crop stress detection, crop production forecasting, forestry, land use and land cover change. | High resolution optical imager | |
LISS-IV
Linear Imaging Self Scanner - IV | Operational
| Vegetation monitoring, improved crop discrimination, crop yield, disaster monitoring and rapid assessment of natural resources. | High resolution optical imager | |
MBEI
Multi-Band Earth Imager | Operational
| Multispectral scanner images of land surface. | High resolution optical imager | |
MERSI
Medium Resolution Spectral Imager | Operational
| Measurement of vegetation indexes and ocean colour. | n/a | |
MERSI-2
Improved Medium Resolution Spectral Imager | Operational
| Measurement of vegetation indexes and ocean colour. | n/a | |
MERSI-LL
Medium Resolution Spectral Imager - Low-Light | Operational
| Measurement of vegetation indexes and ocean colour. | n/a | |
MERSI-S
Improved Medium Resolution Spectral Imager - Simplified | Operational
| Measurement of vegetation indexes and ocean colour. | n/a | |
MIRS
Middle IR Scanner | Operational
| Scanner images of land surface in middle infra-red range. | n/a | |
MISR
Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer | Operational
| Measurements of global surface albedo, aerosol and vegetation properties. Also provides multi-angle bidirectional data (1% angle-to-angle accuracy) for cloud cover and reflectances at the surface and aerosol opacities. Global and local modes. | n/a | |
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 | |
MS
Multispectral Imager | Operational
| Vegetation and land cover, land cover change. | n/a | |
MSC
Multi-Spectral Camera | Operational
| High resolution imager for land applications of cartography and disaster monitoring. | High resolution optical imager | |
MSI (Sentinel-2)
Multi-Spectral Instrument (Sentinel-2) | Operational
| Optical high spatial resolution imagery over land and coastal areas for GMES operational services. | High resolution optical imager | |
MUX (CBERS-4)
Multispectral CCD Camera | Operational
| Agriculture; Forestry; Geology; Natural disaster management; Cartography; Environment monitoring; Fire detection, localization and counting; Hydrology, coastal water mapping; Land use; Surveillance and law enforcement | High resolution optical imager | |
MUX (CBERS-4A)
Multispectral CCD Camera | Operational
| Agriculture; Forestry; Geology; Natural disaster management; Cartography; Environment monitoring; Fire detection, localization and counting; Hydrology, coastal water mapping; Land use; Surveillance and law enforcement | n/a | |
MUX (GF-1)
Multispectral CCD Camera | Operational
| Earth resources, environmental monitoring, land use. | High resolution optical imager | |
MUX (GF-2)
Multispectral CCD Camera | Operational
| Earth resources, environmental monitoring, land use. | High resolution optical imager | |
MUX (ZY-3-02)
Multispectral CCD Camera | Operational
| Earth resources, environmental monitoring, land use. | High resolution optical imager | |
MX (Cartosat-3)
Multispectral VNIR | Operational
| High resolution land observation and cartography | High resolution optical imager | |
NAOMI (MS)
New Astrosat Optical Modular Imager (MS) | Operational
| NAOMI - MS (2m GSD, 10.3km Swath) is a TMA opto-mechanical instrument employing 24-stage TDI scanning. Data is used for various applications including cartography, land use planning and management, national security, etc. | High resolution optical imager | |
OLCI
Ocean and Land Colour Imager | Operational
| Marine and land services. | n/a | |
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 | |
PALSAR-2
Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar-2 | Operational
| Disaster monitoring, land monitoring, agricultural monitoring, natural resource exploration, global forest monitoring, potential use and interferometry. | Imaging radar (SAR) | |
PAN (CBERS-4)
Panchromatic and Multispectral Imager | Operational
| Agriculture; Forestry; Geology; Natural disaster management; Cartography; Environment monitoring; Fire detection, localization and counting; Hydrology, coastal water mapping; Land use; Surveillance and law enforcement | 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 (RISAT)
Synthetic Aperature Radiometer (RISAT) | Operational
| Radar backscatter measurements of land, water and ocean surfaces for applications in soil moisture, crop applications (under cloud cover), terrain mapping, etc. | 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) | |
S-band SAR
S-band SAR | Operational
| SAR imagery for a range of applications including agriculture, maritime and forestry | Imaging radar (SAR) | |
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 | |
SGLI
Second-generation Global Imager | Operational
+/-20 % | 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 | |
SLIM-6-22
Surrey Linear Imager - 6 channel - 22m resolution | Operational
| Visible and NIR imagery in support of disaster management - part of the Disaster Management constellation. | High resolution optical imager | |
TOP (MS)
THEOS Optical Payload (MS) | Operational
| THEOS Optical Payload - MS (15m GSD, 90km Swath) is a refractive instrument employing a line scanning tehchnique. Data is used for various applications including cartography, land use planning and management, national security, etc. | High resolution optical imager | |
VIIRS
Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite | Operational
| Global observations of land, ocean, and atmosphere parameters: cloud/weather imagery, sea-surface temperature, ocean colour, land surface vegetation indices. | n/a | |
VISSR-2
Stretched Visible and Infrared Spin Scan Radiometer-2 | Operational
| Meteorological. | n/a | |
VSC
Venus Superspectral Camera | Operational
| High resolution superspectral images (12 spectral bands) for vegetation and landcover applications. | High resolution optical imager | |
WFI (Amazonia-1)
Wide Field Imager (Amazonia-1) | Operational
| Used for fire extent detection measurement, coastal and vegetation monitoring, land cover and land use mapping. WFI (Amazonia-1) is the same instrument as WFI (CBERS), however due to differences in orbital altitude, they have different spatial resolution | n/a | |
WFI (CBERS-4)
Wide Field Imager (CBERS) | Operational
| Earth resources, environmental monitoring, land use. WFI (Amazonia-1) is the same instrument as WFI (CBERS), however due to differences in orbital altitude, they have different spatial resolutions. | n/a | |
WFI (CBERS-4A)
Wide Field Imager | Operational
| Agriculture; Forestry; Geology; Natural disaster management; Cartography; Environment monitoring; Fire detection, localization and counting; Hydrology, coastal water mapping; Land use; Surveillance and law enforcement | n/a | |
WSAR
WSAR | Operational
| High resolution radar measurements of land and ocean features. | Imaging radar (SAR) | |
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) | |
AEISS-HR
Advanced Electronic Image Scanning System-High Resolution | Being developed
| High resolution imager for land applications of cartography and disaster monitoring | High resolution optical imager | |
AEISS-HR-A
Advanced Electronic Image Scanning System-High Resolution-A | Being developed
| High resolution imager for land applications of cartography and disaster monitoring | High resolution optical imager | |
ALISS III
Advanced LISS III | Being developed
| For crops and vegetation dynamics, natural resources census, disaster management and large scale mapping of themes. | High resolution optical imager | |
CWFMS
Canadian Wildland Fire Monitoring Sensor | Being developed
| Measurements are: Fire Radiative Power (FRP), hotspot locations, rate of spread, burned area mapping. Data products generated: 1) Fire maps, showing location, extent, and timing of forest fire events; 2) Fire characteristics, such as fire line intensity, rate of spread and fuel consumption; 3) Plume dynamics through smoke transport maps and plume heights; 4) Mass of carbon released into atmosphere. | 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 | |
HYC2
HYperspectral Camera 2 | Being developed
| Hyperspectral data for complex land ecosystem studies. | n/a | |
LISS-V
Linear Imaging Self Scanner-V | Being developed
| Vegetation monitoring, improved crop discrimination, crop yield, disaster monitoring and rapid assessment of natural resources. | High resolution optical imager | |
PALSAR-3
Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar-3 | Being developed
| Disaster monitoring, land monitoring, agricultural monitoring, natural resource exploration, global forest monitoring, potential use and interferometry. | 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 | |
CAR
High Resolution Camera | Approved
| Panchromatic and multispectral (Vis/IR) measurements with high spatial resolution, with stereo capability for DEM generation. Applications in emergencies in general, agriculture, land use/land cover, change detection, urban environment, cartography, topography. | High resolution optical imager | |
High Resolution Optical Sensor (CAS500-2)
High Resolution Optical Sensor (CAS500-2) | Approved
| Cartography, land use and planning | High resolution optical imager | |
MERSI-3
Improved Medium Resolution Spectral Imager - 3 | Approved
| Measurement of vegetation indexes and ocean colour. | 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) | |
HISUI
Hyperspectral Imager Suite | No longer considered
| Global energy and resource related applications - Exploration of oil, gas, and metal resources - Environmental assessments of oil/gas fields and mines. Other applications such as environmental monitoring, agriculture, and forestry. Instrument was considered as a part of ALOS-3. | High resolution optical imager | |
VNIR
Visible and Near Infra Red | No longer considered
| | n/a | |