BackForwardInstrument:  HARP2 

Instrument details
Acronym HARP2
Full name Hyper Angular Research Polarimeter 2
Purpose To measure aerosol, cirrus clouds, Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF)
Short description A wide angle multi spectral, angle and viewing radiometer. There are 4 wavelengths: 441, 549, 669, 873 nm; Bandwidths: 15, 12, 16 and 43 nm with polarization angles 0°, 45° and 90°.
Background Heritage of HARP 3U cubesat launched in Feb 2020.
Scanning Technique 2400 km swath, each earth’s spot viewed from up tp 60 angles as satellite moves. 94° cross track; +/- 57° along track. 60 along track viewing angles for the 669 nm band; 10 along track viewing angles for the other 3 bands (441, 549, and 873 nm)
Resolution 2.6 km
Coverage / Cycle 2 days global coverage at 2.6 km resolution.
Mass 9.6 kg Power 11.5 W Data Rate ~ 4 Mbps

 

Providing Agency NASA
Instrument Maturity Flown on an R&D satellite
Utilization Period: 2024 to 2027
Last update: 2024-02-09
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 2
  • Multi-angle, multi-polarization radiometers
  • Multi-angle, multi-polarization radiometer
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • Aerosol Optical Depth
  • Aerosol column burden
  • Aerosol effective radius
  • Aerosol mass mixing ratio
  • Aerosol type
  • Aerosol volcanic ash
  • Aerosol volcanic ash Total Column
  • Cloud cover
  • Cloud optical depth
  • Cloud type
  • Earth surface albedo
  • Earth surface short-wave bidirectional reflectance
  • Oil spill cover
  • Short-wave cloud reflectance
  • Upward short-wave irradiance at TOA
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
Aerosol column burden*1 - primaryCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS (with narrow bandwidth) and NIR channels viewing under many different angles
Aerosol effective radius*1 - primaryCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS (with narrow bandwidth) and NIR channels viewing under many different angles
Aerosol mass mixing ratio*1 - primaryCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS (with narrow bandwidth) and NIR channels viewing under many different angles
Aerosol Optical Depth*1 - primaryCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS (with narrow bandwidth) and NIR channels viewing under many different angles
Aerosol type*1 - primaryCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS (with narrow bandwidth) and NIR channels viewing under many different angles
Biomass5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Index only.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels. Biomass inferred from NDVI
Cloud cover*5 - marginalDaylight only.VIS and NIR channels
Cloud drop effective radius4 - fairAt cloud top.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels and different viewing angles (for differentiation).
Cloud ice effective radius4 - fairAt cloud top.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels with different viewing angles (for differentiation).
Cloud optical depth*4 - fairLow-density cloud only.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels with different viewing angles
Cloud type*5 - marginalDaylight only.VIS and NIR channels viewing under more angles
Colour Dissolved Organic Matter (CDOM)5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.A few narrow-bandwidth VIS channels, suitable for a few water types, mainly in open ocean
Downward short-wave irradiance at Earth surface5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Highly indirect.VIS and NIR channels
Earth surface albedo*1 - primaryCloud sensitive.VIS channels with many viewing angles to account for anisotropic reflectivity
Earth surface short-wave bidirectional reflectance*2 - very highCloud sensitive.VIS and NIR range with many different viewing angles
Fire fractional cover5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Coarse spatial resolution.. Daylight only.VIS channels
Fraction of Absorbed PAR (FAPAR)1 - primaryCloud sensitive.VIS channels including Red at 700 nm, with more viewing angles
Leaf Area Index (LAI)4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels. LAI inferred from NDVI
Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)3 - highCloud sensitive.VIS and NIR channels
Ocean chlorophyll concentration 5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.A few narrow-bandwidth VIS channels, suitable for a few water types, mainly in open ocean
Ocean Diffuse Attenuation Coefficient (DAC)5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.A few narrow-bandwidth VIS channels, suitable for a few water types, mainly in open ocean
Ocean suspended sediments concentration5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.A few narrow-bandwidth VIS channels, suitable for a few water types, mainly in open ocean
Oil spill cover*3 - highCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS channels with narrow bandwidth, with different viewing angles
Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR)1 - primaryCloud sensitive.VIS channels, range undersampled; multi-viewing capability for irradiance reconstruction
Sea-ice cover5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR (for contour enhancement) channels
Short-wave cloud reflectance*2 - very highNo specific limitation.VIS and NIR channels with multi-viewing and multi-polarisation capabiliy to account for anisotropical reflectance
Snow cover4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels
Soil moisture at surface5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Index only.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels. Soil moisture inferred from differential brightness
Integrated Water Vapour (IWV)4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.NIR channels in the bands of water vapour around 900 nm and 940 nm
Upward short-wave irradiance at TOA*4 - fairSpectral interpolation needed.VIS and NIR channels with multi-viewing and multi-polarisation capability to account for anisotropical reflectance
Aerosol volcanic ash*1 - primaryCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels viewing under many different angles
Aerosol volcanic ash Total Column*1 - primaryCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels with many different viewing angles