BackForwardInstrument:  Pelican Imager 

Instrument details
Acronym Pelican Imager
Full name Pelican Imager
Purpose Very high resolution land surface imagery
Short description Assumed to be an enhancement of the SkySat imager which has 5-channel VIS/NIR radiometer with one panchromatic channel and 4 multi-spectral. More details of channels when available.
Background Development of SkySat imager.
Scanning Technique Pushbroom swath.
Resolution Up to 30 cm spatial resolution
Coverage / Cycle Repeat cycle up to 12 times per day, more at high latitudes.
Mass Power Data Rate

 

Providing Agency Planet
Instrument Maturity Flown on operational programme
Utilization Period: 2023 to 2039
Last update: 2023-11-13
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
  • High resolution optical imager
WIGOS Subcomponents
  • Subcomponent 4
  • High-resolution optical observation constellation (commercial)
  • High-resolution optical observation constellation (commercial)
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • Biomass
  • Fire fractional cover
  • Fraction of Absorbed PAR (FAPAR)
  • Fraction of vegetated land
  • Glacier cover
  • Lake area
  • Land cover
  • Leaf Area Index (LAI)
  • Snow cover
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
Biomass*5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Index only.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels. Biomass inferred from NDVI
Cloud cover5 - marginalInfrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels
Cloud optical depth4 - fairLow-density cloud only.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels
Earth surface albedo5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.VIS channels
Fire fractional cover*2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS channels with high resolution for boundary detection
Fraction of Absorbed PAR (FAPAR)*4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.VIS channels including Red at 700 nm
Fraction of vegetated land*2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels
Glacier cover*4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels; and panchromatic channel with high resolution, for glacier boundary detection
Land cover*2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels
Leaf Area Index (LAI)*4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.. Infrequent coverage.VIS and NIR channels. LAI inferred from NDVI
Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.VIS and NIR channels
Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR)4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.VIS channels, range undersampled
Sea-ice cover5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR (for contour enhancement) channels
Short-wave cloud reflectance5 - marginalInfrequent coverage.VIS and NIR channels. Unsuitable dynamic range (saturation)
Snow cover*4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and panchromatic (higher resolution) channels
Soil moisture at surface5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Index only.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels. Soil moisture inferred from differential brightness
Soil type2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels
Upward short-wave irradiance at TOA5 - marginalSpectral interpolation needed.. Information on BRDF needed.. Infrequent coverage.VIS and NIR channels
Vegetation type3 - highCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels
Aerosol volcanic ash5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels
Aerosol volcanic ash Total Column5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels