| Biomass | 4 - fair | Cloud sensitive.. Index only.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels. Biomass inferred from NDVI and LAI |
| Cloud cover | 5 - marginal | Daylight only. | VIS and NIR channels |
| Cloud drop effective radius | 4 - fair | At cloud top.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels and different viewing angles (for differentiation). |
| Cloud ice effective radius | 4 - fair | At cloud top.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels with different viewing angles (for differentiation). |
| Cloud optical depth | 2 - very high | Low-density cloud only.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels with different viewing angles |
| Cloud type | 5 - marginal | Daylight only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels viewing under more angles |
| Downward short-wave irradiance at Earth surface | 3 - high | Cloud sensitive.. Highly indirect. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels |
| Earth surface albedo | 1 - primary | Cloud sensitive. | VIS channels with many viewing angles to account for anisotropic reflectivity |
| Earth surface short-wave bidirectional reflectance | 1 - primary | Cloud sensitive. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels with a few different viewing angles |
| Fire fractional cover | 5 - marginal | Cloud sensitive.. Coarse spatial resolution.. Daylight only. | VIS channels |
| Fraction of Absorbed PAR (FAPAR) | 1 - primary | Cloud sensitive. | VIS channels including Red at 700 nm, with more viewing angles |
| Leaf Area Index (LAI) | 2 - very high | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels |
| Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) | 3 - high | Cloud sensitive. | VIS and NIR channels |
| Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR) | 1 - primary | Cloud sensitive. | VIS channels, range undersampled; multi-viewing capability for irradiance reconstruction |
| Sea-ice cover | 4 - fair | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR (for contour enhancement) and SWIR (for discrimination from clouds) channels |
| Short-wave cloud reflectance | 1 - primary | No specific limitation. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels with multi-viewing and multi-polarisation capabiliy to account for anisotropical reflectance |
| Snow cover | 2 - very high | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels, enabling screening snow from clouds |
| Soil moisture at surface | 5 - marginal | Cloud sensitive.. Index only.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels. Soil moisture inferred from differential brightness |
| Upward short-wave irradiance at TOA | 4 - fair | Spectral interpolation needed.. Information on BRDF needed. | UV, VIS, NIR and SWIR channels |
| Aerosol volcanic ash | 1 - primary | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels, multi-angle viewing and polarimetry for accurate ash identification, also over land |
| Aerosol volcanic ash Total Column | 1 - primary | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels, multi-angle viewing and polarimetry for accurate ash identification, also over land |
Instrument: AOS-Sky polarimeter