BackInstrument:  Imager (NEMO) 

Instrument details
Acronym Imager (NEMO)
Full name NEMO Imager
Purpose To measure the characteristics of atmospheric aerosols
Short description
  • The NEMO-AM imager is a radiometer observing in the bands: 480-500 nm, 650-675 nm, and 860-880 nm.
  • Includes a "p-s" polarising beam splitter at the spectral band output, which generates two identical images at two different polarisations.
  • More details here
Background
  • New development
Scanning Technique
  • Stop and stare at a target at many different angles
  • Capable of a ground swath of 129 km
Resolution Footprint of 35 km x 95 km, with a ground sampling distance of approximately 42 m giving an equivalent ground resolution of 200 m.
Coverage / Cycle The mission is designed to cover an area of up to 80,000 km2 daily.
Mass 9 kg Power 45 W Data Rate 400 Mbits/sec

 

Providing Agency ISRO
Instrument Maturity Flown on an R&D satellite
Utilization Period: 2025 to 2029
Last update: 2025-02-17
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 Absorption Optical Depth
  • Aerosol Extinction Coefficient
  • Aerosol Layer Height
  • Aerosol Optical Depth [550nm, str.]
  • Aerosol effective radius
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 burden1 - primaryCloud 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 - primaryCloud 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 ratio1 - primaryCloud 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 Depth1 - primaryCloud 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 type1 - primaryCloud 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
Biomass4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Index only.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR channels. Biomass inferred from NDVI and LAI
Cloud cover5 - marginalDaylight only.VIS and NIR channels
Cloud drop effective radius4 - fairAt cloud top.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR channels and different viewing angles (for differentiation).
Cloud ice effective radius4 - fairAt cloud top.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR channels with different viewing angles (for differentiation).
Cloud optical depth2 - very highLow-density cloud only.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR channels with different viewing angles
Cloud top height5 - marginalDaylight only.NIR channels to estimate the total-column O2 above the cloud top as measured around 760 nm
Cloud type5 - marginalDaylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR 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 surface3 - highCloud sensitive.. Highly indirect.VIS, NIR and SWIR channels
Earth surface albedo1 - primaryCloud sensitive.VIS channels with many viewing angles to account for anisotropic reflectivity
Earth surface short-wave bidirectional reflectance1 - primaryCloud sensitive.VIS, NIR and SWIR 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)2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR channels
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 cover3 - 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 cover4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR (for contour enhancement) and SWIR (for discrimination from clouds) channels
Short-wave cloud reflectance1 - primaryNo specific limitation.VIS, NIR and SWIR channels with multi-viewing and multi-polarisation capabiliy to account for anisotropical reflectance
Snow cover2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR channels, enabling screening snow from clouds
Soil moisture at surface5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Index only.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR channels. Soil moisture inferred from differential brightness
Upward short-wave irradiance at TOA4 - fairSpectral interpolation needed.VIS, NIR and SWIR channels with multi-viewing and multi-polarisation capability to account for anisotropical reflectance
Aerosol volcanic ash1 - primaryCloud 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 Column1 - primaryCloud 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 - fairCloud or water vapour tracers needed.. Daylight only.VIS channel(s) viewing under many different angles to infer cloud motion and geometric height estimate