| Aerosol column burden | 1 - primary | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only. | VIS (with narrow bandwidth), NIR and SWIR channels including 760 nm, with multi-angle viewing and polarimetry for more aerosol types, also over land |
| Aerosol effective radius* | 1 - primary | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only. | VIS (with narrow bandwidth), NIR and SWIR channels including 760 nm for high-level aerosol, with multi-angle viewing and polarimetry for several aerosol types, also over land |
| Aerosol mass mixing ratio | 1 - primary | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only. | VIS (with narrow bandwidth), NIR (including 760 nm for high-level aerosol) and SWIR channels, with multi-angle viewing and polarimetry for several aerosol types, also over land |
| Aerosol Optical Depth | 1 - primary | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only. | VIS (with narrow bandwidth), NIR and SWIR channels including 760 nm for high-level aerosol, with multi-angle viewing and polarimetry for more aerosol types, also over land |
| Aerosol type | 1 - primary | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only. | VIS (with narrow bandwidth), NIR and SWIR channels including 760 nm for high-level aerosol, with multi-angle viewing and polarimetry for more aerosol types, also over land |
| Biomass | 4 - fair | Cloud sensitive.. Index only.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels. Biomass inferred from NDVI and LAI |
| Cloud cover | 5 - marginal | Daylight only. | VIS and NIR channels |
| Cloud drop effective radius | 4 - fair | At cloud top.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels and different viewing angles (for differentiation). |
| Cloud ice effective radius | 4 - fair | At cloud top.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels with different viewing angles (for differentiation). |
| Cloud optical depth | 2 - very high | Low-density cloud only.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels with different viewing angles |
| Cloud top height | 5 - marginal | Daylight only. | NIR channels to estimate the total-column O2 above the cloud top as measured around 760 nm |
| Cloud type | 5 - marginal | Daylight only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels viewing under more angles |
| Colour Dissolved Organic Matter (CDOM) | 5 - marginal | Cloud 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 surface | 3 - high | Cloud sensitive.. Highly indirect. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels |
| Earth surface albedo | 1 - primary | Cloud sensitive. | VIS channels with many viewing angles to account for anisotropic reflectivity |
| Earth surface short-wave bidirectional reflectance | 1 - primary | Cloud sensitive. | VIS, NIR and SWIR range with many different viewing angles |
| Fire fractional cover | 5 - marginal | Cloud sensitive.. Coarse spatial resolution.. Daylight only. | VIS channels |
| Fraction of Absorbed PAR (FAPAR) | 1 - primary | Cloud sensitive. | VIS channels including Red at 700 nm, with more viewing angles |
| Leaf Area Index (LAI) | 2 - very high | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels |
| Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) | 3 - high | Cloud sensitive. | VIS and NIR channels |
| Ocean chlorophyll concentration | 5 - marginal | Cloud 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 - marginal | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only. | A few narrow-bandwidth VIS channels, suitable for a few water types, mainly in open ocean |
| Ocean suspended sediments concentration | 5 - marginal | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only. | A few narrow-bandwidth VIS channels, suitable for a few water types, mainly in open ocean |
| Oil spill cover | 3 - high | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only. | VIS channels with narrow bandwidth, with different viewing angles |
| Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR) | 1 - primary | Cloud sensitive. | VIS channels, range undersampled; multi-viewing capability for irradiance reconstruction |
| Sea-ice cover | 4 - fair | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR (for contour enhancement) and SWIR (for discrimination from clouds) channels |
| Short-wave cloud reflectance | 1 - primary | No specific limitation. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels with multi-viewing and multi-polarisation capabiliy to account for anisotropical reflectance |
| Snow cover | 2 - very high | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels, enabling screening snow from clouds |
| Soil moisture at surface | 5 - marginal | Cloud sensitive.. Index only.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels. Soil moisture inferred from differential brightness |
| Upward short-wave irradiance at TOA | 4 - fair | Spectral interpolation needed. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels with multi-viewing and multi-polarisation capability to account for anisotropical reflectance |
| Aerosol volcanic ash | 1 - primary | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels including 760 nm, with multi-angle viewing and polarimetry for accurate ash identification, also over land |
| Aerosol volcanic ash Total Column | 1 - primary | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels including 760 nm, with multi-angle viewing and polarimetry for accurate ash identification, also over land |
| Wind (horizontal) | 4 - fair | Cloud or water vapour tracers needed.. Daylight only. | VIS channel(s) viewing under many different angles to infer cloud motion and geometric height estimate |