| Biomass* | 5 - marginal | Cloud sensitive.. Index only.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only. | VIS and NIR channels. Biomass inferred from NDVI |
| Cloud cover | 5 - marginal | Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only. | VIS and NIR channels |
| Cloud optical depth | 4 - fair | Low-density cloud only.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only. | VIS and NIR channels |
| Fire fractional cover | 2 - very high | Daylight only.. Cloud sensitive. | VIS channels with high resolution for boundary detection |
| Fraction of vegetated land* | 2 - very high | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only. | VIS and NIR channels |
| Glacier cover | 4 - fair | Cloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Daylight only. | VIS and NIR channels |
| Glacier topography | 5 - marginal | Cloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Daylight only. | VIS channel(s) and cross-track steering capability for stereoscopy between images from neighbour orbits |
| Ice sheet topography | 5 - marginal | Cloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Daylight only. | VIS channel(s) and cross-track steering capability for stereoscopy between images from neighbour orbits |
| Land cover* | 2 - very high | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only. | VIS and NIR channels |
| Land surface topography | 5 - marginal | Cloud 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)* | 4 - fair | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.. Infrequent coverage. | VIS and NIR channels. LAI inferred from NDVI |
| Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)* | 2 - very high | Cloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage. | VIS and NIR channels |
| Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR) | 5 - marginal | Cloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage. | VIS channels, range undersampled |
| Short-wave cloud reflectance | 5 - marginal | Infrequent coverage. | VIS and NIR channels. Unsuitable dynamic range (saturation) |
| Snow cover | 4 - fair | Cloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only. | VIS and NIR channels |
| Soil moisture at surface | 5 - marginal | Cloud sensitive.. Index only.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only. | VIS and NIR channels. Soil moisture inferred from differential brightness |
| Soil type | 2 - very high | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only. | VIS and NIR channels |
| Upward short-wave irradiance at TOA | 5 - marginal | Spectral interpolation needed.. Information on BRDF needed.. Infrequent coverage. | VIS and NIR channels |
| Vegetation type* | 3 - high | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only. | VIS and NIR channels |
| Aerosol volcanic ash | 5 - marginal | Cloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only. | VIS and NIR channels |
| Aerosol volcanic ash Total Column | 5 - marginal | Cloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only. | VIS and NIR channels |
| Sea-ice cover | 5 - marginal | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only. | VIS and NIR (for contour enhancement) channels |