BackInstrument:  WFS Radiometer 

Instrument details
Acronym WFS Radiometer
Full name WildFireSat radiometer
Purpose To measure fire radiative power
Short description
  • 3 camera system: 2x IR cameras with MWIR and LWIR bands, and 1x camera with VIS/NIR bands
Background
  • New development
Scanning Technique
  • Pushbroom imaging
Resolution 400 m (IR bands), 200m (VIS/NIR bands)
Coverage / Cycle All of vegetated area of Canada twice daily, plus near-daily coverage of international vegetated landmass
Mass Power Data Rate

 

Providing Agency CSA
Instrument Maturity Flown on an R&D satellite
Utilization Period: 2029 to 2034
Last update: 2025-11-14
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
  • Moderate resolution optical imager
WIGOS Subcomponents
  • Subcomponent 1
  • VIS/IR imagery; realisation of a Day/Night band [in SSO]
  • VIS/IR imager [in SSO]
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • Fire fractional cover
  • Fire radiative power
  • Fire temperature
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 cover3 - highNo specific limitation.VIS, MWIR and TIR channels
Cloud top temperature5 - marginalNo specific limitation.TIR window channel(s)
Cloud type3 - highNo specific limitation.VIS, MWIR and TIR channels
Fire fractional cover*4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Coarse spatial resolution.VIS, MWIR and TIR channels
Fire radiative power*2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Coarse spatial resolution.MWIR and TIR channels
Fire temperature*2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Coarse spatial resolution.MWIR and TIR channels
Land surface temperature3 - highCloud sensitive.MWIR and TIR window channels (high sensitivity to high temperature, cloud impact reduction, water vapour correction)
Sea surface temperature4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Affected by sunlight.MWIR window channel(s) around 3.7 micrometers (cloud impact reduction)
Sea-ice cover4 - fairCloud sensitive.VIS, MWIR and TIR channels
Snow cover5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS channel(s)
Soil moisture at surface4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Index only.VIS and TIR window channels. Soil moisture inferred from thermal inertia
Wind (horizontal)5 - marginalLimited to high latitudes.. Cloud or water vapour tracers needed.TIR channel(s) around 11 micrometers window