| Multi-purpose VIS/IR imagery from LEO | This type of mission designates medium-resolution multi-channel radiometers operating in the VIS and IR parts of the spectrum in Low Earth Orbit. |
| Multi-purpose VIS/IR imagery from GEO | This type of mission designates medium-resolution multi-channel radiometers operating in the VIS and IR parts of the spectrum, in geostationary orbit. |
| IR temperature/humidity sounding from LEO | This type of mission designates medium spectral resolution spectrometers or radiometers operating in the IR part of the spectrum, in Low Earth Orbit. |
| IR temperature/humidity sounding from GEO | This type of mission designates medium spectral resolution spectrometers or radiometers operating in the IR part of the spectrum, in geostationary orbit. |
| MW temperature/humidity sounding from LEO | This type of mission designates MW radiometers operating in O2 or H2O absorption bands fo IR sounding in nearly all-weather conditions, in Low Earth Orbit. |
| MW temperature/humidity sounding from GEO | This type of mission designates sounding/imaging radiometers in geostationary orbit. They operate in the millimetre and submillimetre ranges of the spectrum, to allow the use of antennas of practical sizes. |
| MW imagery | This type of mission designates MW radiometers operated in Low Earth Orbit for various purposes. Generally exploiting conical scanning (thus with constant zenith angle) in order to operate with several polarisations, or cross-track pushbroom scanning for some low-frequency sensors. |
| Radio occultation sounding | This type of mission designates receivers of signals from navigation systems (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Beidou) embarked on LEO satellites, operating during the occultation phase. The radio-occultation measurements are used for atmospheric temperature and humidity sounding, and/or for ionospheric sounding. |
| Earth radiation budget from LEO | This type of mission designates two measuring systems:
- broad-band radiometry of the total upward radiation (longwave emission of the Earth's atmosphere to Space and short-wave reflected solar radiation) measured from Low Earth Orbit; provision of additional information from key narrow-band channels, and multi-directional viewing (to retrieve irradiance), are necessary;
- Cavity radiometers to measure the incoming solar radiation.
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| Earth radiation budget from GEO | This type of mission designates two measuring systems in geostationary or higher orbits :
(i) broad-band radiometry of the total upward radiation (emission from the Earth's amosphere to Space and of short-wave reflected solar radiation); (ii) incoming solar radiation.
In complement to the Earth Radiation Budget monitoring from LEO, measurements acquired from several GEO satellites around the globe enable capturing diurnal variations. The L1 Lagrange libration point is also a privileged vantage point for solar monitoring
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| Sea-surface wind by active and passive MW | This type of mission designates radar scatterometers that provide backscatter coefficient observations under a number of viewing angles. Another technique makes use of passive MW imagers exploiting several polarisations (up to full-polarisation) at different frequencies. |
| Radar altimetry | This type of mission designates essentially nadir-pointing radars that measure the distance between the satellite and the reflecting sea surface. It can also be used on land and ice. It is possible to implement SAR capability to more accurately detect ice border and topography. To be associated with co-aligned passive MW radiometers for water vapour correction, and with precise orbit determination. |
| Ocean colour imagery from LEO | This type of mission designates VIS/NIR imagers designed to work on low-level signals (because of low reflectivity of ocean) and narrow-bandwidth channels to address specific water features. Observation of aerosol is needed for atmospheric correction. |
| Ocean colour imagery from GEO | This type of mission designates VIS/NIR imagers specifically designed to work on low-level signals (because of low reflectivity of ocean) and narrow bandwidth channels to address specific water features. Observation of aerosol is needed for atmospheric correction. Geostationary orbit. |
| Imagery with special viewing geometry | This type of mission designates VIS/IR imagers viewing under different angles for specific purposes : accurate atmospheric correction, anisotropy effects, optimal geometry to exploit multi-polarisation, need for reconstructing irradiances from observed radiances, etc. |
| Lightning imagery from GEO or LEO | This type of mission designates special cameras observing the Earth all-time and recording rate and intensity of flashes in a given area (the IFOV), from a Geostationary or Low Earth Orbit. |
| Cloud and precipitation profiling by radar | This type of mission designates radars with different characteristics depending on the type of cloud to be observed: non-precipitating, with light-moderate precipitation, with heavy precipitation. |
| Lidar observation (for wind, for cloud/aerosol, for trace gases, for altimetry) | This type of mission designates lidars with different characteristics depending on the type of variable to be measured: wind, cloud, aerosol, water vapour, trace gases, altimetry. |
| Cross-nadir SW spectrometry (for chemistry) from LEO | This type of mission designates short-wave spectrometers (UV/VIS/NIR/SWIR) designed for use in atmospheric chemistry, in LEO. |
| Cross-nadir SW spectrometry (for chemistry) from GEO | This type of mission designates short-wave spectrometers (UV/VIS/NIR/SWIR) designed for use in atmospheric chemistry, in GEO. |
| Cross-nadir IR spectrometry (for chemistry) from LEO | This type of mission designates IR spectrometers designed for use in atmospheric chemistry, in LEO. |
| Cross-nadir IR spectrometry (for chemistry) from GEO | This type of mission designates IR spectrometers designed for use in atmospheric chemistry, GEO. |
| Limb-sounding spectrometry | This type of mission designates limb-viewing spectrometers designed for use in atmospheric chemistry, in short waves (UV/VIS/NIR/SWIR), in IR or in millimeter/submillimeter waves. Mm/submm also provide information on cloud ice and liquid water in upper troposphere and low stratosphere. |
| High-resolution imagery for land observation | This type of mission designates imagers, with various trade-offs between high spatial resolution and swath width, often steerable to enable in-flight selection of the area to be observed within the field of regard. |
| Synthetic Aperture Radar | This type of mission designates side-looking radar associated to special signal analysis that enables very-high resolution imagery. The technology implies very precise trade-off between frequency, geometric resolution, swath and polarisation. |
| Space Weather: Solar activity monitoring | This mission addresses measurements of radiative fluxes emitted by the sun in different wavelengths (Gamma-ray, X-ray, EUV, UV, VIS and Radio waves) to monitor sunspots, solar flares, coronal mass ejections and solar magnetic field |
| Space weather: Heliospheric radiation monitoring | This mission addresses the measurement of elettromagnetic radiation at several wavelengths (Gamma-rays, X-rays, EUV, UV, VIS, NIR/SWIR and Radio waves) in the interplanetary space and the Earth's environment |
| Space weather: Energetic particles monitoring | This mission addrsses the measurement of energetic particles (electrons, protons, alpha-particles, ions, cosmic-rays and Energetic Neutral Atoms) on the Sun, in the solar wind, in the magnetosphere and ionosphere, and in the platform environment |
| Space Weather: Field and wave monitoring | This mission addresses the measurement of magnetic and electric fields and their oscillations in the magnetosphere and ionosphere |
| Gravity field measuring systems | The long-wavelength components of the Earth's gravity field are measured by positioning systems and altimeters (radar and lidar). The short-wavelength components are measured by specific missions embarking accelerometers or, in some case, exploiting several satellites in coordinated orbits to measure variations of their relative positions. |
| Precise positioning | Precise positioning systems are not only used for spacecraft control and for the provision of satellite-based navigation services (GNSS), they play also a critical role to support satellite altimetry and gravity field observations. |
| Data Collection Systems and Search-and-Rescue | Telecommunication services to retrieve data from Data Collection Platforms (DCP) or capture distress signals for Search and Rescue |
| Instruments covering 200-400 nm | This portion of UV is relevant for solar irradiance, absorbing aerosol, the Hartley and Huggins ozone bands, and several species such as BrO, ClO, HCHO, NO, NO2 and SO2. Involved instrument types:
• Moderate resolution optical imager,
• Cross-nadir scanning SW sounder,
• Limb sounder. |
| Instruments covering 400-700 nm | VIS range, for clouds, surface, aerosol, ocean colour, and the ozone Chappuis band. Involved instrument types:
• Moderate-resolution optical imager,
• High-resolution optical imager,
• Cross-nadir scanning SW sounder,
• Limb sounder. |
| Instruments covering 700-1300 nm | NIR range, to observe clouds, surface, the oxygen A-band around 760 nm, and the water vapour band around 940 nm. Involved instrument types:
• Moderate-resolution optical imager,
• High-resolution optical imager,
• Cross-nadir scanning SW sounderl,
• Limb sounder. |
| Instruments covering 1300-3000 nm | SWIR band, to observe surface, aerosol, cloud microphysics, the water vapour bands around 1380 nm and 2700 nm, and several species such as CH4, CO, CO2 and N2O. Involved instrument types:
• Moderate-resolution optical imager,
• High-resolution optical imager,
• Cross-nadir scanning SW sounder,
• Limb sounder. |
| Instruments covering 3.0-5.0 micrometers | This portion of MWIR includes a major atmospheric window to observe surface temperatures and clouds, the CO2 band around 4.3 micrometers, and several species such as C2H6, CH4, CO, CO2, COS and N2O. Involved instrument types:
• Moderate resolution optical imager,
• High resolution optical imager,
• Cross-nadir infrared sounder,
• Limb sounder. |
| Instruments covering 5.0-8.5 micrometers | Major water vapour band, extending across MWIR and TIR. It also observes several species such as C2H2, CH4, ClONO2, HNO3, N2O, N2O5, NO, NO2, PAN and SO2. Involved instrument types:
• Moderate resolution optical imager,
• Cross-nadir infrared sounder,
• Limb sounder. |
| Instruments covering 8.5-15 micrometers | This portion of TIR includes a major atmospheric window to observe surface and clouds, the main CO2 band, an ozone band around 9.7 micrometers, and several species such as C2H2, C2H6, CFC-11, CFC-12, ClONO2, COS, HNO3, N2O5, PAN, SF6 and SO2. Involved instrument types:
• Moderate resolution optical imager,
• High resolution optical imager,
• Cross-nadir infrared sounder,
• Limb sounder. |
| Instrument covering 15 micrometers - 1 mm (300-20,000 GHz) | This is the FIR range, that includes the Mm/sub-mm range 300-3000 GHz. It is sensitive to cirrus clouds and it is dominated by several bands of H2O and its continuum, as well as O2, and includes bands of ozone, BrO, ClO, HCl, HDO, N2O and OH. Involved instrument types:
• Cross-nadir infrared sounder,
• Limb sounder. |
| Instruments covering 1-300 GHz | his is the MW range, that includes several window regions for surface observations including wind stress, areas of different sensitivity to liquid water and ice water for precipitation inference, absorption bands of O2 (~54 and ~118 GHz) and H2O (~23 and ~183 GHz) for atmospheric temperature and humidity, and bands of O3 and some other species such as HNO3. Involved instrument types:
• Microwave conical scanning radiometer,
• Microwave cross-track scanning radiometer,
• Limb sounder. |
