WMO OSCAR | Details for Instrument MSI (Sentinel-2A)

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Instrument: MSI (Sentinel-2A)

Instrument details

Acronym	MSI (Sentinel-2A)
Full name	Multi-Spectral Imager for Sentinel-2
Purpose	High-resolution land observation, vegetation, territory management and hazards mitigation
Short description	13 channel in VIS/NIR/SWIR [see detailed characteristics below]
Background	New development
Scanning Technique	Pushbroom, swath 290 km nominally close to nadir, pointable off-track for emergencies
Resolution	IFOV: 10 to 60 m, depending on channel (see table)
Coverage / Cycle	Global coverage in 10 days, in daylight. More frequent possible for emergencies
Mass	275 kg	Power	266 W	Data Rate	450 Mbps

Providing Agency	ESA
Instrument Maturity	Backed by strong heritage
Utilization Period:	2015 to 2033
Last update:	2021-06-15

Detailed characteristics

Central wavelength	Bandwidth	SNR @ specified input spectral radiance	IFOV at s.s.p.
443 nm	20 nm	129 @ 129.11 W m^-2 sr^-1 µm^-1	60 m
490 nm	65 nm	154 @ 128.00 W m^-2 sr^-1 µm^-1	10 m
560 nm	35 nm	168 @ 128.00 W m^-2 sr^-1 µm^-1	10 m
665 nm	30 nm	142 @ 108.00 W m^-2 sr^-1 µm^-1	10 m
705 nm	15 nm	117 @ 74.60 W m^-2 sr^-1 µm^-1	20 m
740 nm	15 nm	89 @ 68.23 W m^-2 sr^-1 µm^-1	20 m
783 nm	20 nm	105 @ 66.70 W m^-2 sr^-1 µm^-1	20 m
842 nm	115 nm	174 @ 103.00 W m^-2 sr^-1 µm^-1	10 m
865 nm	20 nm	72 @ 52.39 W m^-2 sr^-1 µm^-1	20 m
945 nm	20 nm	114 @ 8.77 W m^-2 sr^-1 µm^-1	60 m
1375 nm	20 nm	50 @ 6.00 W m^-2 sr^-1 µm^-1	60 m
1610 nm	90 nm	100 @ 4.00 W m^-2 sr^-1 µm^-1 and 504 @ 32.00 W m^-2 sr^-1 µm^-1	20 m
2190 nm	180 nm	100 @ 1.70 W m^-2 sr^-1 µm^-1 and 475 @ 11.00 W m^-2 sr^-1 µm^-1	20 m

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

Sentinel-2 (ESA)
- Sentinel-2A (see instrument status) Sep 2015 - 2024
- Sentinel-2B (see instrument status) Jun 2017 - 2024
- Sentinel-2C (see instrument status) 2024 - 2031
- Sentinel-2D (see instrument status) Jan 2028 - 2033

Instrument classification

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

WIGOS Subcomponents

Subcomponent 1
High-resolution multi-spectral VIS/IR imagers
High-resolution multi-spectral VIS/IR imager

Mission objectives

Primary mission objectives

Biomass
Fraction of Absorbed PAR (FAPAR)
Fraction of vegetated land
Land cover
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.

Variable	Relevance for measuring this variable	Operational limitations	Explanation
Biomass*	4 - fair	Cloud sensitive.. Index only.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.	VIS, NIR and SWIR channels. Biomass inferred from NDVI and LAI
Cloud cover	5 - marginal	Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.	VIS, NIR and SWIR channels
Cloud optical depth	3 - high	Low-density cloud only.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.	VIS, NIR and SWIR channels
Earth surface albedo	5 - marginal	Cloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.	VIS channels
Fire fractional cover	2 - very high	Daylight only.. Cloud sensitive.	VIS channels with high resolution for boundary detection
Fraction of Absorbed PAR (FAPAR)*	4 - fair	Cloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.	VIS channels including Red at 700 nm
Fraction of vegetated land*	1 - primary	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	VIS, NIR and SWIR channels
Glacier cover	3 - high	Cloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Daylight only.	VIS, NIR and SWIR channels, screening ice from clouds
Land cover*	1 - primary	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	VIS, NIR and SWIR channels
Leaf Area Index (LAI)*	2 - very high	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.. Infrequent coverage.	VIS, NIR and SWIR channels
Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)*	2 - very high	Cloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.	VIS and NIR channels
Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR)	4 - fair	Cloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.	VIS channels, range undersampled
Short-wave cloud reflectance	4 - fair	Infrequent coverage.	VIS, NIR and SWIR channels. Unsuitable dynamic range (saturation)
Snow cover	1 - primary	Cloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.	VIS, NIR and SWIR channels, enabling screening snow from clouds
Soil moisture at surface	5 - marginal	Cloud sensitive.. Index only.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.	VIS, NIR and SWIR channels. Soil moisture inferred from differential brightness
Soil type	1 - primary	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	VIS, NIR and SWIR channels
Upward short-wave irradiance at TOA	5 - marginal	Spectral interpolation needed.. Information on BRDF needed.. Infrequent coverage.	VIS, NIR and SWIR channels
Vegetation type*	2 - very high	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	VIS, NIR and SWIR channels
Aerosol volcanic ash	5 - marginal	Cloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.	VIS, NIR and SWIR channels
Aerosol volcanic ash Total Column	5 - marginal	Cloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.	VIS, NIR and SWIR channels
Sea-ice cover	4 - fair	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	VIS, NIR (for contour enhancement) and SWIR (for discrimination from clouds) channels