| Aerosol column burden* | 1 - primary | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.. Along-track only. | VIS (with narrow bandwidth), NIR and SWIR channels, multi-angle viewing and polarimetry for several aerosol types, also over land |
| Aerosol effective radius* | 1 - primary | Along-track only.. Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only. | VIS (with narrow bandwidth), NIR and SWIR channels, multi-angle viewing and polarimetry for several aerosol types, also over land |
| Aerosol mass mixing ratio* | 1 - primary | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.. Along-track only. | VIS (with narrow bandwidth), NIR and SWIR channels, multi-angle viewing and polarimetry for several aerosol types, also over land |
| Aerosol Optical Depth* | 1 - primary | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.. Along-track only. | VIS (with narrow bandwidth), NIR and SWIR channels, multi-angle viewing and polarimetry for several aerosol types, also over land |
| Aerosol type* | 1 - primary | Along-track only.. Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only. | VIS (with narrow bandwidth), NIR and SWIR channels, multi-angle viewing and polarimetry for several aerosol types, also over land |
| Biomass | 4 - fair | Cloud sensitive.. Index only.. Along-track only.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels. Biomass inferred from NDVI and LAI |
| Cloud cover* | 5 - marginal | Daylight only.. Along-track only. | VIS and NIR channels |
| Cloud drop effective radius | 4 - fair | At cloud top.. Daylight only.. Along-track only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels and different viewing angles (for differentiation). |
| Cloud ice effective radius | 4 - fair | At cloud top.. Daylight only.. Along-track only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels with different viewing angles (for differentiation). |
| Cloud optical depth* | 2 - very high | Low-density cloud only.. Daylight only.. Along-track only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels with different viewing angles |
| Cloud type* | 5 - marginal | Daylight only.. Along-track only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels viewing under more angles |
| Colour Dissolved Organic Matter (CDOM) | 5 - marginal | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.. Along-track only. | A few narrow-bandwidth VIS channels, suitable for a few water types, mainly in open ocean |
| Downward short-wave irradiance at Earth surface | 3 - high | Cloud sensitive.. Highly indirect.. Along-track only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels |
| Earth surface albedo* | 1 - primary | Cloud sensitive.. Along-track only. | VIS channels with many viewing angles to account for anisotropic reflectivity |
| Earth surface short-wave bidirectional reflectance* | 1 - primary | Cloud sensitive.. Along-track only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels with a few different viewing angles |
| Fire fractional cover | 5 - marginal | Cloud sensitive.. Coarse spatial resolution.. Daylight only.. Along-track only. | VIS channels |
| Fraction of Absorbed PAR (FAPAR) | 1 - primary | Cloud sensitive.. Along-track only. | VIS channels including Red at 700 nm, with more viewing angles |
| Leaf Area Index (LAI) | 2 - very high | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.. Along-track only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels |
| Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) | 3 - high | Cloud sensitive.. Along-track only. | VIS and NIR channels |
| Ocean chlorophyll concentration | 5 - marginal | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.. Along-track only. | A few narrow-bandwidth VIS channels, suitable for a few water types, mainly in open ocean |
| Ocean Diffuse Attenuation Coefficient (DAC) | 5 - marginal | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.. Along-track only. | A few narrow-bandwidth VIS channels, suitable for a few water types, mainly in open ocean |
| Ocean suspended sediments concentration | 5 - marginal | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.. Along-track only. | A few narrow-bandwidth VIS channels, suitable for a few water types, mainly in open ocean |
| Oil spill cover* | 3 - high | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.. Along-track only. | VIS channels with narrow bandwidth, with different viewing angles |
| Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR) | 1 - primary | Cloud sensitive.. Along-track only. | VIS channels, range undersampled; multi-viewing capability for irradiance reconstruction |
| Short-wave cloud reflectance* | 1 - primary | Along-track only. | 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.. Along-track only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels, enabling screening snow from clouds |
| Soil moisture at surface | 5 - marginal | Cloud sensitive.. Index only.. Daylight only.. Along-track only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels. Soil moisture inferred from differential brightness |
| Integrated Water Vapour (IWV) | 5 - marginal | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.. Along-track only. | NIR channels in the ro-sigma-tau band of water vapour around 940 nm |
| Upward short-wave irradiance at TOA* | 4 - fair | Spectral interpolation needed.. Along-track only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels with multi-viewing and multi-polarisation capability to account for anisotropical reflectance |
| Aerosol volcanic ash* | 1 - primary | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.. Along-track 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.. Along-track only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels, multi-angle viewing and polarimetry for accurate ash identification, also over land |
| Sea-ice cover | 4 - fair | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.. Along-track only. | VIS, NIR (for contour enhancement) and SWIR (for discrimination from clouds) channels |