BackForwardInstrument:  HRCC 

Instrument details
Acronym HRCC
Full name High-Resolution CCD Camera
Purpose High-resolution land and vegetation observation
Short description 5 channels in VIS and NIR (1 panchromatic) [see detailed characteristics below]
Background Consolidated technology
Scanning Technique Pushbroom. 5812 pixel/line, swath 113 km, possible to be pointed within a field of regard of ± 500 km
Resolution 20 m
Coverage / Cycle Global coverage in 26 days or 3 days by exploiting strategic pointing
Mass 118 kg Power 68 W Data Rate 106 Mbps

 

Providing Agency CAST
Instrument Maturity Flown on operational programme
Utilization Period: 2000 to 2010
Last update: 2020-01-06
Detailed characteristics
Central wavelength Spectral interval SNR @ specified input spectral radiance
Low signal High signal
N/A (PAN) 0.51 - 0.73 µm 32 @ 4.6 W m-2 sr-1 μm-1 48 @ 28.7 W m-2 sr-1 μm-1
0.485 µm 0.45 - 0.52 µm 31 @ 3.7 W m-2 sr-1 μm-1 50 @ 30.1 W m-2 sr-1 μm-1
0.555 µm 0.52 - 0.59 µm 26 @ 2.4 W m-2 sr-1 μm-1 48 @ 25.9 W m-2 sr-1 μm-1
0.660 µm 0.63 - 0.69 µm 29 @ 2.7 W m-2 sr-1 μm-1 52 @ 35.6 W m-2 sr-1 μm-1
0.830 µm 0.77 - 0.89 µm 37@ 9.0 W m-2 sr-1 μm-1 53 @ 33.6 W m-2 sr-1 μm-1
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 1
  • High-resolution multi-spectral VIS/IR imagers
  • High-resolution multi-spectral VIS/IR imager
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • Biomass
  • Fraction of Absorbed PAR (FAPAR)
  • Fraction of vegetated land
  • Land cover
  • Leaf Area Index (LAI)
  • Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)
  • Vegetation type
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
Biomass*5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Index only.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels. Biomass inferred from NDVI
Cloud cover5 - marginalInfrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels
Cloud optical depth4 - fairLow-density cloud only.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels
Earth surface albedo5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.VIS channels
Fire fractional cover2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS channels with high resolution for boundary detection
Fraction of Absorbed PAR (FAPAR)*4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.VIS channels including Red at 700 nm
Fraction of vegetated land*2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels
Glacier cover4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels; and panchromatic channel with high resolution, for glacier boundary detection
Glacier topography5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Daylight only.VIS and panchromatic channels with cross-track steering capability for stereoscopy between images from neighbour orbits
Ice sheet topography5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Daylight only.VIS and panchromatic channels with cross-track steering capability for stereoscopy between images from neighbouring orbits
Land cover*2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels
Land surface topography5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Daylight only.VIS and panchromatic channels with cross-track steering capability for stereoscopy between images from neighbour orbits
Leaf Area Index (LAI)*4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.. Infrequent coverage.VIS and NIR channels. LAI inferred from NDVI
Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)*2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.VIS and NIR channels
Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR)4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.VIS channels, range undersampled
Short-wave cloud reflectance5 - marginalInfrequent coverage.VIS and NIR channels. Unsuitable dynamic range (saturation)
Snow cover4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and panchromatic (higher resolution) channels
Soil moisture at surface5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Index only.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels. Soil moisture inferred from differential brightness
Soil type2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels
Upward short-wave irradiance at TOA5 - marginalSpectral interpolation needed.. Information on BRDF needed.. Infrequent coverage.VIS and NIR channels
Vegetation type*3 - highCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels
Aerosol volcanic ash5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels
Aerosol volcanic ash Total Column5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels
Sea-ice cover5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR (for contour enhancement) channels