BackForwardInstrument:  FEI 

Instrument details
Acronym FEI
Full name FORUM Embedded Imager
Purpose To provide cloud cover measurements and surface heterogeneity within the FSI field of view.
Short description

The FEI is a thermal-infrared imager co-aligned with the FSI field-of-view and provides high spatial resolution imagery within a single spectral band centered near 10.5 μm with a bandwidth of approximately 1.5 μm. The imager has a sub-footprint resolution of about 0.6 km, arranged in a 60×60 pixel grid that covers the entire 15 km diameter FSI footprint.
Background

New development
Scanning Technique

Nadir view
Resolution 0.6 km
Coverage / Cycle
Mass Power Data Rate

 

Providing Agency ESA
Instrument Maturity Flown on an R&D satellite
Utilization Period: TBD
Last update: 2026-10-19
Detailed characteristics
Satellites this instrument is flying on

Note: a red tag indicates satellites no longer operational, a green tag indicates operational satellites, a blue tag indicates future satellites

Instrument classification
  • Earth observation instrument
  • Passive optical radiometer or spectrometer
  • Moderate resolution optical imager
WIGOS Subcomponents
  • Subcomponent 1
  • VIS/IR imagery; realisation of a Day/Night band [in SSO]
  • VIS/IR imager [in SSO]
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • Cloud cover
Evaluation of Measurements

The following list indicates which measurements can typically be retrieved from this category of instrument. To see a full Gap Analysis by Variable, click on the respective variable.

Note: table can be sorted by clicking on the column headers
Note: * Primary mission objective.
VariableRelevance for measuring this variableOperational limitationsExplanation
Cloud top temperature5 - marginalNo specific limitation.TIR window channel(s)
Fire radiative power5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Coarse spatial resolution.TIR channels
Fire temperature5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Coarse spatial resolution.TIR channels
Sea surface temperature5 - marginalCloud sensitive.TIR window channel(s) around 11 micrometers .
Wind (horizontal)5 - marginalLimited to high latitudes.. Cloud or water vapour tracers needed.TIR channel(s) around 11 micrometers window