BackForwardInstrument:  GF-4/13 imager 

Instrument details
Acronym GF-4/13 imager
Full name Imager of GaoFen-4 and GaoFen-13
Purpose Disaster monitoring from geostationary orbit
Short description Detailed instrument description not yet available. It should be a two-channel imager, one panchromatic, one in the MWIR around 3.7 μm.
Background New development
Scanning Technique Whiskbroom, scanning areas of 400 km x 400 km size, addressable within a Field Of Regard of 7000 km x 7000 km centred over China, with temporal resolution at minute-level
Resolution For GF-4 Panchromatic: 50 m; MWIR: 400 m; over the Chinese area. For GF-13 Panchromatic maybe improved to 15 m but no confirmation of this.
Coverage / Cycle Local coverage over China at minute-level
Mass Power Data Rate

 

Providing Agency CNSA
Instrument Maturity Flown on an R&D satellite
Utilization Period: 2016 to 2030
Last update: 2023-03-20
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
  • High resolution optical imager
WIGOS Subcomponents
  • Subcomponent 4
  • High-resolution optical observation constellation (commercial)
  • High-resolution optical observation constellation (commercial)
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • Fire fractional cover
  • Fire radiative power
  • Fire temperature
  • Land surface temperature
  • Sea surface temperature
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 cover5 - marginalInfrequent coverage.. Daylight only.Panchromatic channel
Fire fractional cover*2 - very highInfrequent coverage.. Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.MWIR window channel(s) around 3.7 micrometers
Fire radiative power*3 - highCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.MWIR window channel(s) around 3.7 micrometers
Fire temperature*3 - highCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.MWIR window channel(s) around 3.7 micrometers
Glacier cover5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Daylight only.Panchromatic channel with high resolution, for glacier boundary detection
Land surface temperature*4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Affected by sunlight.MWIR window channel(s) around 3.7 micrometers (high sensitivity to high temperature, cloud impact reduction)
Sea surface temperature*4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Affected by sunlight.MWIR window channel(s) (cloud impact reduction)
Snow cover5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.Panchromatic channel