SSTL’s Hyperspectral imager celebrates 7 years in orbit
Thursday 6 November 2008
Building on its success with the first hyperspectral instrument, which was launched into orbit in 2001, Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) has developed an advanced variant of this imager. The new instrument supports advanced Earth observation missions in a wide range of applications in resource monitoring and mapping, environmental science and security.
The original hyperspectral imager (CHRIS) was developed by SSTL's Optical Payload Group (formerly Sira Space Group), and placed into orbit in October 2001 on the PROBA mission developed by the European Space Agency (ESA). It weighs just 14kg, and has recently passed its 7th year in orbit as the highest resolution civil hyperspectral instrument in space. It has been highly successful in development of new Earth observation applications, and is supporting 94 international Principal Investigators (PIs), acquiring images from over 240 sites in 43 countries. The images can be acquired at five different view angles for each site, on a single over pass, allowing both spectral and directional signatures to be captured. The mission also supports the International Charter for disaster campaigns. The data from the mission is being used in a wide range of applications including land cover assessment, resource management, deforestation and forest management, precision farming, aerosol monitoring and water quality assessment.
Scheduled and processed for ESA by SSTL’s sister company DMCii, the hyperspectral images have been in high demand over the past 7 years, and the mission has pioneered and validated techniques for future scientific and commercial imaging spectrometer missions.
The CHRIS-2 instrument expands upon this unique capability by including the short wave infra-red band (SWIR), which then allows further valuable applications to be addressed including mineralogy, prospecting, crop health and pollution monitoring.
Hyperspectral imagers split the available light from a scene into a large range of channels, providing detailed information about the imagery content. Whereas the CHRIS instrument provided up to 62 channels in the visible band, the CHRIS-2 instrument extends this capability to over 200 bands, including the short-wave infra-red bands (SWIR). Placing such an instrument on a spacecraft provides global reach and supports national and international routine imaging campaigns efficiently with minimal operational impact.
SSTL can offer the CHRIS-2 instrument on its future Earth observation mission satellites or as a stand alone payload alongside CHRIS-1 and its high-resolution instruments."
Mike Cutter, SSTL's Business Development Manager, noted the importance and value of such instrumentation, "Hyperspectral instruments have been widely used on aircraft for mineral prospecting and resource management and the CHRIS instruments enable this capability to be used on a national and continental scale, which is critical both for efficient management of natural resources and for providing the information to determine the effects of climate change and mitigation measures."
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