| Instrument | Status/
Accuracy | Instrument Description | Measurement Technology | Timeline |
| 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 |  |
| 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 | |
| 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 | |
| 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 | |
| AWiFS | Operational | Vegetation and crop monitoring, resource assessment (regional scale), forest mapping, land cover/ land use mapping, and change detection. | n/a | |
| CZI | Operational | Imagery of coastal regions - estuaries, tidal regions, etc. | n/a | |
| Geoton-L1 (2) | Operational | Multispectral images of land surfaces and Oceans. | n/a | |
| HSI | Operational | Detailed monitoring and characterization of rock and soil targets, vegetation, inland and coastal waters on a global scale. | n/a | |
| HSI-2 (HJ-2A) | Operational | Hyperspectral measurements for environment and disaster management operations. | n/a | |
| HYC | Operational | Hyperspectral data for complex land ecosystem studies. | n/a | |
| IRMSS-2 (HJ-2) | Operational | Infrared measurements for environment and natural disaster monitoring. | n/a | |
| IRS | Operational | Earth resources, environmental monitoring, land use. | n/a | |
| KMSS | Operational | Multispectral images of land & sea surfaces and ice cover. | n/a | |
| KShMSA-VR | Operational | Land surface and ocean monitoring | n/a | |
| LISS-III (Resourcesat) | Operational | Data used for vegetation type assessment, resource assessment, crop stress detection, crop production forecasting, forestry, land use and land cover change. | n/a | |
| LISS-IV | Operational | Vegetation monitoring, improved crop discrimination, crop yield, disaster monitoring and rapid assessment of natural resources. | 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 | |
| MISR | 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 | 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 | Operational | Vegetation and land cover, land cover change. | n/a | |
| MSI (BJ-2) | Operational | SSTL-300 S1 Imager also known as VHRI 100 (Very High Resolution Imager 100). | n/a | |
| MSI (Sentinel-2) | Operational | Optical high spatial resolution imagery over land and coastal areas for Copernicus operational services. | n/a | |
| MSS | Operational | Multispectral images of land & sea surfaces and ice cover. | n/a | |
| MSU-MR | Operational | Parameters of clouds, snow, ice and land cover, vegetation, surface temperature, fire detection. | n/a | |
| MUX (CBERS-4) | 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 (CBERS-4A) | 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) | Operational | Earth resources, environmental monitoring, land use. | n/a | |
| MUX (GF-2) | Operational | Earth resources, environmental monitoring, land use. | n/a | |
| MUX (ZY-3-02) | Operational | Earth resources, environmental monitoring, land use. | n/a | |
| MVIRS | Operational | Measures surface temperature and cloud and ice cover. Used for snow and flood monitoring and surface temperature. | n/a | |
| NigeriaSat 2 Remote Sensing (Med and High Res) | Operational | High resolution images for monitoring of land surface and coastal processes and for agricultural, geological and hydrological applications. | n/a | |
| NigeriaSat X Remote Sensing (Medium Resolution) | Operational | High resolution images for monitoring of land surface and coastal processes and for agricultural, geological and hydrological applications. | n/a | |
| OCI | Operational | Ocean color slit-grating imaging spectrometer/radiometer for measuring top of atmosphere reflectance which is used to estimate ocean leaving light that contains information on biological components plus aerosol and cloud propertiesl | n/a | |
| OLCI | Operational | Marine and land services. | n/a | |
| OLI | Operational | Measures surface radiance, land cover state, and change (e.g., vegetation type). Used as multi-purpose imagery for land applications. | n/a | |
| OLI-2 | Operational | Measures surface radiance, land cover state, and change (e.g., vegetation type). Used as multi-purpose imagery for land applications. | n/a | |
| PALSAR-2 | Operational | Disaster monitoring, land monitoring, agricultural monitoring, natural resource exploration, global forest monitoring, potential use and interferometry. | n/a | |
| PAN (BJ-2) | Operational | SSTL-300 S1 Imager also known as VHRI 100 (Very High Resolution Imager 100). | n/a | |
| PAN (Cartosat-2A/2B) | Operational | High resolution stereo images for large scale (better than 1:0000) mapping applications, urban applications, GIS ingest. | n/a | |
| PAN (Cartosat-2E) | Operational | High resolution stereo images for large scale (better than 1:0000) mapping applications, urban applications, GIS ingest. | n/a | |
| PAN (Cartosat-3) | Operational | High resolution images for study of topography, urban areas, development of DTM, run-off models etc. Urban sprawl, forest cover/timber volume, land use change. | n/a | |
| PAN (CBERS-4) | 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 | |
| PSS | Operational | Panchromatic data for environmental monitoring, agriculture and forestry. | n/a | |
| SAR (RADARSAT-2) | 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. | n/a | |
| SAR (RCM) | Operational | All-weather, C-band data to support ecosystem monitoring, maritime surveillance and disaster management. | n/a | |
| SGLI | Operational | 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 | Operational | Visible and NIR imagery in support of disaster management - part of the Disaster Management constellation. | n/a | |
| SLSTR | Operational | Marine and land services. | n/a | |
| TIRS | Operational | Measures longwave thermal infrared surface emittance, land cover state, and change. Used as multipurpose imagery for land applications. | n/a | |
| 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). | n/a | |
| 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 | |
| WFI (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) | 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) | 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 | |
| WPM | 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 | Operational | High resolution radar measurements of land and ocean features. | n/a | |
| WVC-2 | Operational | Multispectral measurements of Earth's surface for natural enviroment and disaster applications. | n/a | |
| X-Band SAR | Operational | High resolution images for monitoring of land surface and coastal processes and for agricultural, geological and hydrological applications. | n/a | |
| AMSI | Being developed | Optical high spatial resolution imagery over land and coastal areas for Copernicus operational services. | n/a | |
| AOLCI | Being developed | Visible and near-infrared hyperspectral radiometer supporting a wide range of Marine, Land, Atmosphere and Climate Services. Provides enhanced continutity of ocean colour and land colour measurements from OLCI and enhanced synergy with ASLSTR | n/a | |
| APAN | Being developed | High-resolution images for the study of topography, urban areas, development of DTM, run-off models etc., urban sprawl, forest cover/timber volume, land use change. | 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 | |
| HYC2 | Being developed | Hyperspectral data for complex land ecosystem studies. | n/a | |
| LISS-V | Being developed | Vegetation monitoring, improved crop discrimination, crop yield, disaster monitoring and rapid assessment of natural resources. | n/a | |
| PALSAR-3 | Being developed | Disaster monitoring, land monitoring, agricultural monitoring, natural resource exploration, global forest monitoring, potential use and interferometry. | n/a | |
| UVNS (Sentinel-5) | Being developed | Supporting atmospheric composition and air quality monitoring services. Measurements of atmospheric trace gases, primarily O3, NO2, SO2, HCHO, CH4, CO, CHOCHO as well as Aerosols and UV Index. | High-resolution nadir-scanning SW spectrometer | |
| OEK VR | Approved | Multispectral images of land surfaces and Oceans. | n/a | |
| Advanced KMSS | Proposed | Multispectral images of land & sea surfaces and ice cover. | n/a | |
| Advanced MSU-MR | Proposed | Parameters of clouds, snow, ice and land cover, vegetation, surface temperature, fire detection. | n/a | |
| LandIS | 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. | n/a | |
| L-Band SAR | Proposed | Global observation of dynamic processes in the bio-, cryo-, geo- and hydrosphere. | n/a | |
| SWIR | No longer considered | | n/a | |