BackForwardInstrument:  PRISM 

Instrument details
Acronym PRISM
Full name Panchromatic Remote-sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping
Purpose Very-high-resolution land observation, Digital Elevation Model (DEM) by stereoscopy
Short description Single-channel (0.52-0.77 µm) radiometer with three views, fore-, nadir and aft- (± 24° and nadir)
Background Flown on ALOS (2006-2011)
Scanning Technique Push-broom, nadir image 28000 pixel/line / 70 km swath, fore- and aft- 14000 pixel/line / 35 km swath
Resolution 2.5 m IFOV for the nadir image
Coverage / Cycle Global coverage in 46 days for nadir imagery, 96 days for stereoscopy
Mass 528 kg Power 783 W Data Rate 960 Mbps (raw), 240 or 120 Mbps (compressed)

 

Providing Agency JAXA
Instrument Maturity Flown on an R&D satellite
Utilization Period: 2006 to 2011
Last update: 2017-03-28
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 1
  • High-resolution multi-spectral VIS/IR imagers
  • High-resolution multi-spectral VIS/IR imager
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • Fire fractional 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
Cloud cover5 - marginalInfrequent coverage.. Daylight only.Panchromatic channel
Fire fractional cover*2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.Panchromatic channel with high resolution, for fire boundary detection
Glacier cover5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Daylight only.Panchromatic channel with high resolution, for glacier boundary detection
Glacier topography5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Daylight only.Panchromatic channel and along-track steering capability for stereoscopy between successive images along the orbit
Ice sheet topography5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Daylight only.Panchromatic channel and along-track steering capability for stereoscopy between successive images along the orbit
Land surface topography5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Daylight only.Panchromatic channel and along-track steering capability for stereoscopy between consecutive images along the orbit
Snow cover5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.Panchromatic channel
Sea-ice cover5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.Panchromatic channel