BackForwardInstrument:  HYC 

Instrument details
Acronym HYC
Full name HYperspectral Camera
Purpose High-resolution hyperspectral observation of land, vegetation, inner waters and costal zones
Short description Prism spectrometer for two bands (VNIR and NIR/SWIR). Spectral resolution: 10 nm, 66 + 171 channels [see detailed characteristics below]. HYC-2 is an upgraded version for PRISMA2GEN with better spatial resolution.
Background New development
Scanning Technique Pushbroom: swath 30 km; 1000 pixels/line. Addressable within a Field-of-Regard of 1000 km on either sides
Resolution 30 m at s.s.p. for HYC-1 10 m for HYC-2
Coverage / Cycle Global coverage in 3 months, or down to few days depending on strategic pointing
Mass 90 kg Power 110 W Data Rate 155 Mbps

 

Providing Agency ASI
Instrument Maturity Backed by strong heritage
Utilization Period: 2019 to 2035
Last update: 2023-10-25
Detailed characteristics
Band Spectral interval No. of channels Channel bandwidth SNR at expected input radiance
VIS/NIR 400 - 1010 nm 66 10 nm 200 (average)
NIR/SWIR 920 - 2505 nm 171 10 nm 200 (average in 1-2 μm), 100 (average in 2-2.5 μm)
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
  • Narrow-band or hyperspectral imagers
  • Hyperspectral imager (for vegetation)
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • Biomass
  • Fraction of Absorbed PAR (FAPAR)
  • Fraction of vegetated land
  • 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
Aerosol column burden4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR (including the 760 nm band for high-level aerosol) and SWIR hyperspectral channels
Aerosol effective radius4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR including the 760 nm band for high-level aerosol, and SWIR hyperspectral channels
Aerosol mass mixing ratio4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR (including the 760 nm band for high-level aerosol) and SWIR hyperspectral channels
Aerosol Optical Depth4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR (including the 760 nm band for high-level aerosol) and SWIR hyperspectral channels
Aerosol type4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR (including the 760 nm band for high-level aerosol) and SWIR hyperspectral channels
Biomass*3 - highCloud sensitive.. Index only.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral channels. Biomass inferred from NDVI and other vegetation indexes
Cloud cover4 - fairInfrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral channels
Cloud optical depth2 - very highLow-density cloud only.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral channels
Cloud top height4 - fairInfrequent coverage.. Daylight only.NIR hyperspectral channels to estimate the total-column O2 above the cloud top as measured around 760 nm
Downward short-wave irradiance at Earth surface2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Highly indirect.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral channels
Earth surface albedo4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.VIS hyperspectral channels
Cloud type5 - marginalDaylight only.. Infrequent coverage.. Cloud sensitive.VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral channels
Fire fractional cover2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS channels with high resolution for boundary detection
Fraction of Absorbed PAR (FAPAR)*3 - highHigh troposphere only.. Cloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.VIS channels including Red at 700 nm
Fraction of vegetated land*1 - primaryCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral
Glacier cover3 - highCloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR channels, screening ice from clouds
Glacier topography5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Daylight only.VIS channel(s) and cross-track steering capability for stereoscopy between images from neighbour orbits
Ice sheet topography5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Daylight only.VIS channel(s) and cross-track steering capability for stereoscopy between images from neighbour orbits
Land cover1 - primaryCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral channels
Land surface topography5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Daylight only.VIS channel(s) and cross-track steering capability for stereoscopy between images from neighbouring orbits
Leaf Area Index (LAI)*1 - primaryCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.. Infrequent coverage.VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral channels
Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)*1 - primaryCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.VIS and NIR hyperspectral channels
Oil spill cover4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.. Infrequent coverage.VIS hyperspectral channels
Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR)3 - highCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.VIS channels, range accurately sampled
Sea-ice cover4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR (for contour enhancement) and SWIR (for discrimination from clouds) channels
Short-wave cloud reflectance4 - fairInfrequent coverage.VIS, NIR and SWIR channels. Unsuitable dynamic range (saturation)
Snow cover1 - primaryCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR channels, enabling screening snow from clouds
Soil moisture at surface5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Index only.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral channels. Soil moisture inferred from differential brightness
Soil type1 - primaryCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral channels
Specific humidity4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Very coarse vertical resolution.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.NIR hyperspectral channels including the ro-sigma-tau band of water vapour around 940 nm
Integrated Water Vapour (IWV)5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.NIR hyperspectral channels covering the 940 nm band
Upward short-wave irradiance at TOA5 - marginalSpectral interpolation needed.. Information on BRDF needed.. Infrequent coverage.VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral channels
Vegetation type*1 - primaryCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral channels
Aerosol volcanic ash4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral channels including the 760 nm band for high-level ash
Aerosol volcanic ash Total Column4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral channels including the 760 nm band for high-level ash