The High Spectral & Spatial Resolution Instrument Development Project (HSSRI)

(LANDSAT / SPOT Follow-on Mission)

 

The object of this project is to develop a conceptual design for a next-generation LANDSAT or a LANDSAT/SPOT follow on instrument (High Spectral and Spatial Resolution Instrument, HSSRI) that will both duplicate all the data products of the previous instruments and also provide for much better data acquisition capability, to support advanced remote sensing research.

The author proposes to lead this project, supported by specialists in the various instrument technology disciplines.

Proposal to develop a conceptual design for a High Spectral and Spatial Resolution Remote Sensing Instrument (HSSRRSI)

HSSRI Business Plan

A High Spatial and Spectral Resolution Remote Sensing Instrument© Design Proposal [coming soon]


Applications

* Land use
* Biodiversity
* Habitat fragmentation
* Forest management
* Crop distribution
* Crop infestations
* Sedimentation
* Shoreline erosion
* Waste spills and contamination
* Water quality
* Algal blooms
* Natural or manmade disaster monitoring
* Non remote sensing applications (process control, art imaging, eg.)
*

HSSRI General characteristics

* VIS-NIR Bands - Full Spectral Imaging, Ground Resolution:10m
* SWIR Bands - Full Spectral Imaging, Ground Resolution: 30m
* IR Bands - Multispectral Imaging, Ground Resolution: 100m
* Blue, Green, Red, and NIR "Sharpening Bands", Spectro-Spatial Compression©, Ground Resolution: 1-2m
* Swath Width - ~180 Km [TBD]
* Orbital Characteristics - similar to LANDSAT or SPOT

Details of the HSSRI: [For more details see: http://carstad.gsfc.nasa.gov/topics/JBRESEARCH/FullSpectAdvInst.htm]

* Full "Pushbroom" system (no scan mirrors)
* Full Spectral Imaging (VIS-NIR and SWIR) to replace Hyperspectral (many bands) Imaging
  [see http://carstad.gsfc.nasa.gov/Topics/JBRESEARCH/FullSpect.htm]
* No on-board calibration systems (calibration relies on vicarious means and instrument stability)
* Full spectral imaging data processing system
* On-board "spectro-spatial" data compression system
* Non-linear sensor digitization systems
* On-board geolocation system
* Forward motion compensation for elimination of pixel smear
* Yaw and roll control system for compensation for Earth rotation
* Direct broadcast data transmission
* Peer-to-peer, grid, data sharing and archiving

[More detailed information coming soon]

HSSRI STRAWMAN SPECIFICATIONS

 
Characteristics of Related Instruments

* LANDSAT
* SPOT-4
* ALOS/PRISM/AVNIR-2
* Ikonos
* OrbView-3
* QuickBird
* DEIMOS
* Rapid Eye
* Warfighter-1
* ARIES
* Disaster Monitoring Constellation
* BILSAT
* China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite (CBERS-2)
*

LANDSAT Characteristics (from http://geo.arc.nasa.gov/sge/landsat/l7.html)

* a panchromatic band with 15m spatial resolution
* on board, full aperture, 5% absolute radiometric calibration
* a thermal IR channel with 60m spatial resolution

 

Landsat 7 and ETM+ Characteristics:
 

SPOT 4 Characteristics (from http://www.spot.com/home/system/introsat/seltec/welcome.htm)
Spot 4

 

 

ALOS/PRISM/AVNIR-2

The Japanese Earth observing satellite program consists of two series: those satellites used mainly for atmospheric and marine observation, and those used mainly for land observation. The Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) follows the Japanese Earth Resources Satellite-1 (JERS-1) and Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS) and will utilize advanced land-observing technology. ALOS will be used for cartography, regional observation, disaster monitoring, and resource surveying.

ALOS

The ALOS has three remote-sensing instruments: the Panchromatic Remote-sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping (PRISM) for digital elevation mapping, the Advanced Visible and Near Infrared Radiometer type 2 (AVNIR-2) for precise land coverage observation, and the Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR) for day-and-night and all-weather land observation. In order to utilize fully the data obtained by these sensors, the ALOS was designed with two advanced technologies: the former is the high speed and large capacity mission data handling technology, and the latter is the precision spacecraft position and attitude determination capability. They will be essential to high-resolution remote sensing satellites in the next decade. ALOS have been successfuly launched on an H-IIA launch vehicle from the Tanegashima Space Center, Japan.

ALOS Characteristics

 

PRISM  Panchromatic Remote-sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping

 

Image of PRISMThe Panchromatic Remote-sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping (PRISM) is a panchromatic radiometer with 2.5m spatial resolution at nadir. Its extracted data will provide a highly accurate digital surface model (DSM).
PRISM has three independent optical systems for viewing nadir, forward and backward producing a stereoscopic image along the satellite's track. Each telescope consists of three mirrors and several CCD detectors for push-broom scanning. The nadir-viewing telescope covers a width of 70km; forward and backward telescopes cover 35km each.
The telescopes are installed on the sides of the optical bench with precise temperature control. Forward and backward telescopes are inclined +24 and -24 degrees from nadir to realize a base-to-height ratio of 1.0. PRISM's wide field of view (FOV) provides three fully overlapped stereo (triplet) images of a 35km width without mechanical scanning or yaw steering of the satellite. Without this wide FOV, forward, nadir, and backward images would not overlap each other due to the Earth's rotation.

PRISM Characteristics

 

Note: PRISM cannot observe areas beyond 82 degrees south and north latitude.

Observation Modes

Mode 1   Triplet observation mode using Forward, Nadir, and Backward views (Swath width is 35km)
Mode 2   Nadir (70km) + Backward (35km)
Mode 3   Nadir (70km)
Mode 4   Nadir (35km) + Forward (35km)
Mode 5   Nadir (35km) + Backward (35km)
Mode 6   Forward (35km) + Backward (35km)
Mode 7   Nadir (35km)
Mode 8   Forward (35km)
Mode 9   Backward (35km)

    

AVNIR-2 Advanced Visible and Near Infrared Radiometer type 2

 

image of AVNIR-2The Advanced Visible and Near Infrared Radiometer type 2 (AVNIR-2) is a visible and near infrared radiometer for observing land and coastal zones. It provides better spatial land-coverage maps and land-use classification maps for monitoring regional environments. AVNIR-2 is a successor to AVNIR that was on board the Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS), which was launched in August 1996.
Its instantaneous field-of-view (IFOV) is the main improvement over AVNIR. AVNIR-2 also provides 10m spatial resolution images, an improvement over the 16m resolution of AVNIR in the multi-spectral region. Improved CCD detectors (AVNIR has 5,000 pixels per CCD; AVNIR-2 7,000 pixels per CCD) and electronics enable this higher resolution. A cross-track pointing function for prompt observation of disaster areas is another improvement. The pointing angle of AVNIR-2 is +44 and - 44 degree.

AVNIR-2 Characteristics

 

Note: AVNIR-2 cannot observe the areas beyond 88.4 degree north latitude and 88.5 degree south latitude.

IKONOS

Ikonos Sensor Specifications: (from: http://geo.arc.nasa.gov/sge/health/sensor/sensors/ikonos.html)

Ikonos-1 was planned for launch in 1999 but the launch failed. Ikonos-2 was planned for launch in 2000, but was renamed Ikonos and was launched in September 1999 to replace Ikonos-1. The imaging sensors are panchromatic and multispectral. This satellite has a polar, circular, sun-synchronous 681-km orbit and both sensors have a swath width of 11 km.

OrbView-3 Specifications (from http://www.orbimage.com/Launch/Downloads/OV-3%20Specifications.pdf)

 

The satellite will revisit each location on Earth in less than three days with its ability to turn from side-to-side up to 45 degrees.



QuickBird Sensor Specifications (from http://www.digitalglobe.com/products/basic.shtml#)

 

 
Spatial and Spectral Resolution

 

 
Image Accuracy

 

 

 

 
DEIMOS: New European Earth Observation Satellite
The Spanish aerospace engineering company DEIMOS Space and the Remote Sensing Laboratory of the University of Valladolid (LATUV) have founded the new company DEIMOS Imaging for the design, implementation, operation, and commercial exploitation of a complete Earth Observation space system in Valladolid (Spain).

DEIMOS: New European Earth Observation Satellite

The system is based on a satellite with a multispectral optical instrument with a spatial resolution of 22 m and a wide swath of more than 600 km. The satellite records Earth images on board for a later downlink via the ground station under construction in the Technological Park of Boecillo (Valladolid, Spain).

DEIMOS Imaging is developing the new satellite system in collaboration with Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) based in Guilford (UK), European leader in the construction of small satellites, with an impressive record of over 30 launched satellites. One of them is the first experimental satellite of Galileo, the new European navigation constellation. This satellite was successfully launched in December 2005, and has secured the frequency assigned to Europe for the operation of this Constellation.

The planned launch date for the new satellite is the first quarter of 2008. The operational lifetime of the satellite is five years. The new company DEIMOS Imaging will provide Earth imagery at different processing levels to the European and global Earth Observation value added companies. In addition, it has the capability to develop applications leading to commercial products and services for final institutional and private users. The main applications of the system are targeted to agriculture, forest, land use, environment, hydrology, monitoring natural resources and disaster monitoring such as fires or flooding.

The processing, archiving and distribution centre will be located at the R&D Building of the University of Valladolid. In this University, LATUV has been developing its Remote Sensing activities during the last 18 years.

The new satellite provides a unique imaging capacity and revisit time at this level of resolution. Due to its large swath, it allows a double full coverage of Spain and Portugal every week, and a full coverage of Europe every 10 days. The regions of special interest for the new system are: Spain (and especially the region of Castile and Leon) where the system is located; Portugal where the sister company DEIMOS Engenharia will commercialise the system, and the rest of Europe, where DEIMOS Imaging would like to contribute to the development of the GMES (Global, Monitoring, Environment and Security), a joint Programme of ESA and the European Union (EU).

DEIMOS satellite will be integrated into the international constellation DMC (Disaster Monitoring Constellation), which is composed of satellites from the UK, China, Nigeria, Algeria and Turkey. The combined use of the constellation satellites provides a unique capacity for Earth Observation, with more than one daily image of any place in the world.

The DMC is a unique international collaboration of member nations and, through this satellite, Spain joins the existing countries in the consortium (Algeria, China, Nigeria, Turkey and the UK). Each member of the consortium owns and operates a satellite whilst co-operating with the other members of the consortium. The model of co-operation has significant benefits – it allows information generated on-board one satellite to be used by other members of the consortium.

More Information
Deimos Space S.L.
Miguel Belló Mora, Managing Director
Tel: +34 918063450 

Rapid Eye

5 - band multispectral
5 - meter pixels

RapidEye AG
Molkenmarkt 30
14776 Brandenburg an der Havel
Germany
Phone: +49 3381 8904-0
Fax: +49 3381 8904-101
Toll Free (US): +1 800 940 3617
Email: info@rapideye.de
Web: www.rapideye.de
RapidEye Contact  http://www.rapideye.de/home/contact/

The Warfighter-1 program is an advanced technology demonstration program that will provide hyperspectral imagery and related technology and services as a part of OSC’s ORBView-4 high-resolution imaging satellite. Iinitially, the plan was to use ORBView-3, and OrbImage's OrbView-4 (OV-4) is being modified to incorporate the Warfighter-1 (WF-1) hyperspectral sensor. The extremely design and polar orbit of OV-4 make it very well suited for its earth remote sensing mission. The satellite’s high-performance electro-optical digital camera will be modified to add hyperspectral imaging capabilities. The program will also include the evaluation and validation of hyperspectral technologies, development of a mobile ground station, related image processing algorithms and software for assessment of tactical utility for military applications.

Orbit:
     470 Km
     97.3 Deg. Inclination
     Sun Synchronous
     10:30am Descending Node

Imagers:
     1-Meter Panchromatic
     4-Meter Multispectral
     8-Meter Hyperspectral

Launch Vehicle: OSC Taurus
Satellite Weight: 360 kg
Scheduled Launch Date: Mid FY00
Hyperspectral Payload Lifetime: 3 Yr Life/ 5 Yr Goal

Sensor Characteristics:

Body Scanning Whisk-Broom Scan Imager
     Field of Regard: ±50°
8 x 8 Km Nominal Scene Size In Pan/Multispectral Modes
     Panchromatic @ 1 & 2 Meter GSD
     Multispectral - 4 Bands @ 4 Meter GSD
5 x 20 Km Scene Size For Hyperspectral Modes
     Visible/NIR/SWIR/MWIR @ 8 Meter GSD
     2 Grating Spectrometers
     280 Spectral Bands, Ranging From 0.45 To 5.0 µm
Geo-Location Of Pixels
     Panchromatic Pixels To Better Than 12 Meters @ 90%
     Hyperspectral Pixels To Within 75 Meters 3
Downlink Data Rate: 150 Mbps
     3 Watt X-Band Transmitter @ 8.2 GHz
Onboard Data Storage: 32 Gb
     Five 100 Km2 Hypercubes
Encryption:
     Uplink - NSA Encrypted
     Downlink - Commercial Data Encryption Standard

Hyperspectral Focal Plane Characteristics 

Hyperpectral Band Characteristics 

 
Commercial Band Characteristics

Australian Resource Information and Environment Satellite (ARIES)

ARIES Characteristics:

* Weight: Less than 500 kg
* Orbit: 98 degrees sun synchronous, 500 km above the Earth’s surface
* Sensors: 32 contiguous bands in the visible and near infrared (400 to 1,100 nm, minimum 600:1 SNR at 600 nm)
* 32 contiguous bands in the short-wave infrared (2,000-2,500 nm, minimum 400:1 SNR at 2,100 nm)
* Optional coverage of 1,000-2,000 nm range with emphasis on sensors for atmospheric correction and calibration
* Panchromatic sensor
* Spatial Resolution: Hyperspectral - 30 m at nadir Panchromatic – 10 m at nadir
* Ground Swath: 15 km at nadir
* Off track pointing: To 30 degrees off vertical
* Revisit Time: 7 days at 30 degrees look angle
* Design Life: 5 years
* Expected Launch Date: 2002

http://www.tec.army.mil/tio/ARIES.htm and http://www.ioccg.org/sensors/aries.html

Disaster Monitoring Constellation (Surrey Satellite Technology, Ltd.)

The Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) was designed as a proof of concept constellation, capable of multispectral imaging of any part of the world every day. It is unique in that each satellite is independently owned and controlled by a separate nation, but all satellites have been equally spaced around a sun-synchronous orbit to provide daily imaging capability.

The satellites are all designed and built at Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) in the UK. Through the support of the British National Space Centre, SSTL owns and operates the UK satellite in the constellation.

Although its headline objective is to support the logistics of disaster relief, its main function is to provide independent daily imaging capability to the partner nations; Algeria, Nigeria, Turkey, UK and China.

The DMC satellites provide a unique Earth Observation resource that enables daily revisit anywhere in the world. This is possible with only a few satellites because they are designed to image a large area of up to 600 x 600km. This greatly improves the value of the data as it often avoids the need for mosaics of images from different seasons.

All DMC Members agree to provide 5% of capacity free for daily imaging of disaster areas, and this data is channelled to aid agencies through Reuters AlertNet in the beginning. The DMC Consortium has agreed to consider participation in the International Charter for Space in Major Disasters, contributing daily imaging capability to fill the existing 3-5 day response gap. UK-DMC also provides data through an ESA project called RESPOND. In addition the DMC Members are interested in encouraging the use of DMC data for scientific and commercial applications.

 

Mission & Spacecraft

 

• Daily revisit , worldwide
• 5 equi-spaced s/c @ 686 km
• 80 kg mass; mass limit 140 kg
• 36 m / 600 km swath, tri-linear array imaging payload
• 3-axis momentum bias stabilised <0.01°/s, accuracy <1.0°
• On-board orbit control & GPS orbit determination
• Design Life 5 years

 

 

UO-Sat 12 Multispectral Imager

Ground Sampled Distance; 30m
Spectral bands: blue, green, red, Near-IR
Image Coverage: 60km x 30km (dual-imager system)
Detector: Kodak: 1024 x 1024

http://www.dmcii.com/products_sensor.htm

The standard DMC Imager is a 6 channel, Surrey Linear Imager (SLIM6) and is built by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL), UK. The sensor is an evolution of previous multispectral cameras flown on various SSTL missions. The SLIM6 design provides for a nadir-viewing, three-band multispectral scanning camera capable of providing mid-resolution image information of the Earth's surface when operated from DMC spacecraft located in a near polar, sun-synchronous and circular orbit at a 686 km nominal altitude, with an orbit inclination of 98 degrees. The SLIM6 is designed to collect and detect radiation from the Earth in a swath 600 km wide as it passes overhead, utilising the spacecraft orbital motion to provide an along-track scan (push broom configuration). As a DMC image is acquired the CCD scan lines for each of the 6 channels are stored in a Solid State Data Recorder (SSDR) in a band-interlaced RAW format format. A separate SSDR is used to store data from each bank of three CCDs as it is acquired.

SLIM6 Design

The SLIM6 consists of 2 banks (Port and Starboard) of 3 channels (bands) and therefore 6 separate channels collect scene energy, as depicted below. Combination of the 2 banks provides the total nominal swath width in satellite view of 600km.




SLIM6 - Single Channel Focal Plane Assembly

 

Each SLIM6 imager channel has a solid-state detector at the focal plane.

The spectral filters for the bands are located in front of each channel lens. To protect the filter a fused silica radiation protection window is set in front of the filter (space facing).

Each channel lens is a Schneider Apo-Componon HM, this lens type has been flown on SSTL missions since 2000 (Tsinghua-1).

Description

SLIM6 - Spectral Filters

The nominal wavelength location of the SLIM6 spectral bands, nominal iFOV size and associated ground sample distance resolution, for a 686 km satellite altitude, are as shown in the table below. The SLIM6 spectral response is determined by the overall combination of all of the optical elements, the spectral filters, and the detector response. The spectral filters, located immediately in front of each channel lens, are the dominant items that establish the optical bandpass for each spectral band. Each SLIM6 Channel has a filter housing for the relevant filter as shown in Figure 1. Barr Associates Inc, USA manufactures the SLIM6 spectral filters with the same materials and processes as the Landsat ETM+ flight filters.

 

The SLIM6 consists of 2 banks (Port and Starboard) of 3 channels (bands). Commonly both banks are used for image acquisition and the angle of the banks provides an overlap in the observed scene for corresponding bands/sensors in the opposite bank. This overlap is used to ensure accurate multiple image overlay or recombination. The nominal overlap based on in orbit calibration data is 567 pixels.

 

The BILSAT-1 satellite was launched by Turkey in Russia, September 2003. BILSAT-1 is to be part of a Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC). The platform has three imaging sensors, a 4-band VNIR sensor, a high-resolution panchromatic sensor, and a low-resolution 9-band camera, and has polar, circular, sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 686km. The multispectral instrument, COBAN, has a spatial resolution of 120m, and the 9 channels are within the range 400-950nm. The swath widths are 55km for the VNIR and 25km for the pan sensors and the sensors have a 4-day repeat cycle.

 

Band	Wavelength Region (µm)	Resolution (m)
1	0.45-0.52 (blue)	26
2	0.52-0.60 (green)	26
3	0.63-0.69 (red)	26
4	0.76-0.90 (NIR)	26
PAN	0.5-0.9?	12

China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite (CBERS-2)

from: http://www.astronautix.com/craft/zy.htm

ZY / CBERS  Other Designations: China Brazil Earth Resource Satellite. Manufacturer's Designation: CBERS. Code Name: Zi Yuan. Class: Earth. Type: Landsat. Destination: Sun Synchronous Orbit. Nation: China. Agency: CAST/INP.

From 1985 China and Brazil jointly developed a sun synchronous imaging satellite bus, the Zi Yuan-1 (Resouce-1) based on the Shi Jian 3 design. The joint project was externally referred to as CBERS (China Brazil Earth Resource Satellite) with China contributing 70% of the program cost.

Originally launches were planned for 1996 and 1999 but there was a three year delay. The spacecraft had overall dimensions of 2 m by 3.3 m by 8.3 m with a 1.1 kW capacity, single solar array and was to operate in an 800-km sun-synchronous orbit with a 26-day repeating ground track pattern.

The Earth observation payload included three primary sensors (the first two of Chinese origin):

* CCD Camera: Five bands (0.51-0.73 micrometer, 0.45-0.52 micrometer, 0.52-0.59 micrometer, 0.63-0.69 micrometer, and 0.77-0.89 micrometer); 20-m resolution; 113 km swath
* IR Multi-Spectral Scanner: Four bands (0.50-1.10 micrometer, 1.55-1.75 micrometer, 2.08-2.35 micrometer, and 10.40-12.50 micrometer); 80-160-m resolution; 120-km swath
* Wide-Field Imager: Two bands (0.63-0.69 micrometer and 0.76-0.90 micrometer); 260-m resolution; 900-km swath.

Zi Yuan-1 also carried a Data Collection System and a Space Environment Monitor. The China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite was jointly built by CAST/Beijing and INPE/Brasil. The spacecraft was controlled from both Chinese and Brazilian ground stations. CBERS-2 was under construction at the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE), and was originally to be launched in October 2001.

China and Brazil signed an agreement in September 2000 to develop two second-generation China-Brazil Earth Remote Sensing satellites (CBERS-3 and -4). The satellites were to include a significant improvement in the imaging resolution of the High Resolution CCD Camera (resolution of 5 meters vs. CBERS-1's 20 meters). The two countries would also study joint development of geostationary meteorological satellites and a telecommunications satellites based on the CBERS bus.

The sun-synchronous orbital bus developed for CBERS and the CBERS-3 imager may have been used for the military ZY-2 satellite, which was placed in a lower orbit for higher resolution imaging. The ZY-2 reportedly had over three times the resolution of the ZY-1.

Typical orbit: 634 km circular orbit, 98 deg inclination. Length: 3.30 m (10.80 ft). Maximum Diameter: 2.00 m (6.50 ft). Span: 8.30 m (27.20 ft). Mass: 1,450 kg (3,190 lb). Associated Launch Vehicle: CZ-4B.

from: http://www.cbers.inpe.br/en/imprensa/not1.htm

The CCD camera, with 20 m spatial resolution, five spectral bands, and a 120 km field of view is oriented to observe phenomenon or objects in a city or regional scale for applications as Vegetation, Agriculture, Cartography, Geology and Soils, and Education. Images from the same region are take each 26 days.
For other hand the IRMSS camera has three spectral bands with 80 m spatial resolution, and an additional band in the thermal infrared region with 160 m resolution. The IRMSS camera besides the CCD applications, could be used to analyze phenomenon which shows surface temperature variations, to generate mosaics of a state region scale and to generate image charts.
The other camera is the WFI which could image large areas in the order to 900 km. This characteristics is very important to observe phenomenon that its magnitude or subject is in a macro regional or state scale. With the WFI camera, images of the same Earth region could be taken each 5 days.

from: http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0310/20cbers2/

The imagers -- each with varying resolutions -- make up the main remote sensing payload aboard CBERS 2. A camera with a resolution of 20 meters will spend much of its time gathering images of smaller-scale locales, focusing on applications such as agriculture, cartography, and geology.
Another instrument gathers infrared data to study temperature differences and to generate mosaics using three spectral bands with 80-meter resolution and another with a resolution of 160 meters.
A Wide Field Imager is available to study larger regions up to 900 kilometers in size with a revisit period of just five days, compared with 26 days of repeat visit time with the higher resolution cameras.



Hyperspectral (Full Spectral) LANDSAT follow-on study proposal

Articles related to LANDSAT

"A Conceptual Design for an imaging Spectrometer" A study done by the author, completed in 1991, for the MODIS-T Project