WMO OSCAR | Details for Instrument MERIS

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Instrument: MERIS

Instrument details

Acronym	MERIS
Full name	Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer
Purpose	Ocean colour, vegetation, aerosol, cloud properties
Short description	15-channel spectroradiometer, positions and bandwidths selectable [see detailed characteristics below]
Background	New development
Scanning Technique	Pushbroom, 3700 pixel/line (split in 5 parallel optical systems), total swath 1150 km
Resolution	Basic IFOV 300 m, reduced resolution for global data recording: 1200 m
Coverage / Cycle	Global coverage in 3 days, in daylight
Mass	200 kg	Power	175 W	Data Rate	24 Mbps

Providing Agency	ESA
Instrument Maturity	Flown on an R&D satellite
Utilization Period:	2002 to 2012
Last update:	2022-07-26

Detailed characteristics

Central wavelength	Bandwidth	SNR @ specified input spectral radiance
412.5 nm	10 nm	1871 @ 47.9 W m^-2 sr^-1 μm^-1
442.5 nm	10 nm	1650 @ 41.9 W m^-2 sr^-1 μm^-1
490 nm	10 nm	1418 @ 31.2 W m^-2 sr^-1 μm^-1
510 nm	10 nm	1222 @ 23.7 W m^-2 sr^-1 μm^-1
560 nm	10 nm	1156 @ 18.5 W m^-2 sr^-1 μm^-1
620 nm	10 nm	863 @ 12.0 W m^-2 sr^-1 μm^-1
665 nm	10 nm	708 @ 9.2 W m^-2 sr^-1 μm^-1
681.25 nm	7.5 nm	589 @ 8.3 W m^-2 sr^-1 μm^-1
708.75 nm	10 nm	631 @ 6.9 W m^-2 sr^-1 μm^-1
753.75 nm	7.5 nm	486 @ 5.6 W m^-2 sr^-1 μm^-1
760.625 nm	3.75 nm	205 @ 3.4 W m^-2 sr^-1 μm^-1
778.75 nm	15 nm	628 @ 4.9 W m^-2 sr^-1 μm^-1
865 nm	20 nm	457@ 3.2 W m^-2 sr^-1 μm^-1
885 nm	10 nm	271 @ 3.1 W m^-2 sr^-1 μm^-1
900 nm	10 nm	211 @ 2.4 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

Environmental Satellite (ESA)
- Envisat (see instrument status) Jun 2002 - Apr 2012

Instrument classification

Earth observation instrument
Passive optical radiometer or spectrometer
Moderate resolution optical imager

WIGOS Subcomponents

Subcomponent 1
Narrow-band or hyperspectral imagers
Narrow-band imager (for ocean colour)

Mission objectives

Primary mission objectives

Aerosol Optical Depth
Aerosol column burden
Biomass
Cloud cover
Cloud top height
Colour Dissolved Organic Matter (CDOM)
Earth surface albedo
Fraction of Absorbed PAR (FAPAR)
Leaf Area Index (LAI)
Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)
Ocean Diffuse Attenuation Coefficient (DAC)
Ocean chlorophyll concentration
Ocean suspended sediments concentration
Oil spill cover
Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR)

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.

Search:

Variable	Relevance for measuring this variable	Operational limitations	Explanation
Colour Dissolved Organic Matter (CDOM)*	1 - primary	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	Many narrow-bandwidth VIS channels, suitable for more water types, in open ocean and coastal zone
Ocean chlorophyll concentration *	1 - primary	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	Many narrow-bandwidth VIS channels, suitable for more water types, in open ocean and coastal zone
Ocean Diffuse Attenuation Coefficient (DAC)*	1 - primary	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	Many narrow-bandwidth VIS channels, suitable for more water types, in open ocean and coastal zone
Ocean suspended sediments concentration*	1 - primary	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	Many narrow-bandwidth VIS channels, suitable for more water types, in open ocean and coastal zone
Aerosol column burden*	3 - high	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	VIS (with narrow bandwidth) and NIR channels including 760 nm for high-level aerosol
Aerosol effective radius	3 - high	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	VIS (with narrow bandwidth) and NIR channels including 760 nm for high-level aerosol
Aerosol mass mixing ratio	3 - high	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	VIS (with narrow bandwidth) and NIR channels including 760 nm for high-level aerosol
Aerosol Optical Depth*	3 - high	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	VIS (with narrow bandwidth) and NIR channels including 760 nm for high-level aerosol
Aerosol type	3 - high	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	VIS (with narrow bandwidth) and NIR channels including 760 nm for high-level aerosol
Fraction of Absorbed PAR (FAPAR)*	3 - high	Cloud sensitive.	VIS channels including Red at 700 nm
Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)*	3 - high	Cloud sensitive.	VIS and NIR channels
Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR)*	3 - high	Cloud sensitive.	VIS channels, range accurately sampled
Aerosol volcanic ash	3 - high	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	VIS and NIR channels including 760 nm for high-level ashes
Aerosol volcanic ash Total Column	3 - high	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	VIS and NIR channels including 760 nm for high-level ashes
Cloud optical depth	4 - fair	Low-density cloud only.. Daylight only.	VIS and NIR channels
Leaf Area Index (LAI)*	4 - fair	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	VIS and NIR channels. LAI inferred from NDVI
Snow cover	4 - fair	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	VIS and NIR channels
Integrated Water Vapour (IWV)	4 - fair	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	NIR channels in the bands of water vapour around 900 nm and 940 nm
Biomass*	5 - marginal	Cloud sensitive.. Index only.. Daylight only.	VIS and NIR channels. Biomass inferred from NDVI
Cloud cover*	5 - marginal	Daylight only.	VIS and NIR channels
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 and NIR channels
Downward short-wave irradiance at Earth surface	5 - marginal	Cloud sensitive.. Highly indirect.	VIS and NIR channels
Earth surface albedo*	5 - marginal	Cloud sensitive.	VIS channels
Fire fractional cover	5 - marginal	Cloud sensitive.. Coarse spatial resolution.. Daylight only.	VIS channels
Oil spill cover*	5 - marginal	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	VIS channels with narrow bandwidth
Short-wave cloud reflectance	5 - marginal	No specific limitation.	VIS and NIR channels
Soil moisture at surface	5 - marginal	Cloud sensitive.. Index only.. Daylight only.	VIS and NIR channels. Soil moisture inferred from differential brightness
Upward short-wave irradiance at TOA	5 - marginal	Spectral interpolation needed.. Information on BRDF needed.	VIS and NIR channels
Sea-ice cover	5 - marginal	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	VIS and NIR (for contour enhancement) channels

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