Table Of Contents
- Key Takeaways
- Earth Observation Sensors in the CEOS Inventory
- Operational Earth Observation Sensors
- Approved Earth Observation Sensors
- Earth Observation Sensors Being Developed
- Proposed Earth Observation Sensors
- What Sensor Types Reveal About Demand
- How Applications Move From Measurement to Services
- Data Access, User Burden, and Market Translation
- Summary
- Appendix: Useful Books Available on Amazon
- Appendix: Top Questions Answered in This Article
- Appendix: Glossary of Key Terms
Key Takeaways
- The CEOS MIM database lists 456 earth observation sensors across four status groups.
- Operational instruments dominate the inventory, with imaging radiometers leading the count.
- Future capacity centers on atmosphere, radar, hyperspectral, and weather-sounding payloads.
Earth Observation Sensors in the CEOS Inventory
The CEOS MIM database lists 456 earth observation sensors, including 326 operational instruments, 28 approved instruments, 69 instruments being developed, and 33 proposed instruments. The database reflects the instrument view of the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites Missions, Instruments, and Measurements database, which CEOS describes as the official consolidated statement of CEOS agency programs and plans. The online CEOS MIM Database and the searchable instrument table give the public entry point for this type of mission and instrument information.
The inventory shows that earth observation sensors form a measurement system, not a single technology family. Visible and infrared imagers supply cloud, ocean, land, ice, fire, aerosol, and temperature products. Microwave sounders and passive microwave radiometers support weather, water vapor, precipitation, snow, ice, and sea-surface measurements. Synthetic aperture radar instruments supply all-weather imaging and deformation monitoring, a theme discussed in New Space Economy coverage of SAR satellite applications. Lidars, altimeters, gravity payloads, magnetic-field instruments, radio-occultation systems, particle monitors, and data collection packages expand the inventory beyond familiar camera-like payloads.
The status groups should be read carefully. Operational means a sensor is in service in the database. Approved indicates a programmatic commitment before operational use. Being developed means hardware or mission work is underway. Proposed means the instrument remains a candidate or concept in the database. These categories are valuable because an operational sensor supports current data services, whereas an approved or proposed payload points to future measurement capacity. The distinction matters for users who depend on continuity in weather forecasting, climate records, disaster response, maritime monitoring, agriculture, infrastructure assessment, and public safety.
The status distribution from the database is shown below.
| Status | Count | Largest Type Groups | Working Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Operational | 326 | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) (58), Space environment (45), High resolution optical imagers (34) | In service and contributing data products or mission functions |
| Approved | 28 | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) (7), Atmospheric chemistry (4), Imaging microwave radars (4) | Program cleared for implementation but not yet operational |
| Being developed | 69 | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) (12), High resolution optical imagers (11), Atmospheric chemistry (7) | Instrument design, build, testing, or integration activity underway |
| Proposed | 33 | Not specified (5), Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) (4), Imaging microwave radars (3) | Concept or candidate instrument without approved operational status |
NASA’s CEOS MIM Keywords page explains that Earth observation data span atmospheric, land, ocean, snow and ice, gravity, and magnetic-field parameters. That breadth appears directly in the export. The same sensor inventory also supports space economy themes such as downstream analytics, data marketplaces, public-sector procurement, defense and security, and commercial application development. New Space Economy’s review of satellite data analytics explains how raw orbital measurements become usable services for business and government users.
Operational Earth Observation Sensors
Operational instruments dominate the export. They include classic weather imagers, high-resolution optical payloads, radar altimeters, scatterometers, passive microwave radiometers, atmospheric sounders, chemistry instruments, and space-environment packages. The group also includes payloads that are easy to overlook, such as data collection systems, precision-orbit instruments, navigation support receivers, and ionospheric measurement packages. A sensor can be commercially valuable even when it does not produce familiar picture-like imagery, because many downstream products depend on temperature profiles, calibration records, sea-surface height, wave fields, soil moisture, or space-weather indicators.
Operational status does not mean every instrument has equal market visibility. High-resolution optical imagers and SAR payloads often attract public attention because their outputs can be visualized quickly. Weather sounders, radiation budget radiometers, occultation receivers, and magnetic-field instruments support less visible but important public functions. The global earth observation industry depends on both categories. Commercial services may package imagery, but the reliability of weather, climate, maritime, and infrastructure products often starts with specialized measurements from instruments that rarely appear in marketing material.
Operational Sensor Reference
The table below lists operational instruments from the CEOS MIM database, with each entry organized by instrument, type, applications, and status.
| Instrument | Type | Applications | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| A-DCS3: Argos Advanced Data Collection System3 | Data collection | Location data by Doppler measurements. Metop-B only providing an ARGOS-2 service since commissioning in 2012 due to satellite cabling problem. | Operational |
| A-DCS4 | Data collection | Data collection and communication system for receiving and retransmitting data from ocean and land-based remote observing platforms/transponders. | Operational |
| ABI: Advanced Baseline Imager | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Detects clouds, cloud properties, water vapour, land and sea surface temperatures, dust, aerosols, volcanic ash, fires, total ozone, snow and ice cover, vegetation index. | Operational |
| ACC: Accelerometer | Precision orbit and space environment | Measurement of the spacecraft non-gravitational accelerations, linear accelerations range: +/- 210-4 m/s2; angular measurement range: +/- 9.6 10-3 rad/s2; measurement bandwidth: 10-4 to 10-2 Hz; Linear resolution: 1.810-10 m/s2; angular resolution: 810-9 rad/s2. | Operational |
| ACE-FTS: Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE) Fourier Transform Spectrometer | Atmospheric chemistry | Measure and understand the chemical processes that control the distribution of ozone in the Earth’s atmosphere, particularly at high altitudes. | Operational |
| AEISS-A: Advanced Electronic Image Scanning System-A | High resolution optical imagers | High resolution imager for land applications of cartography and disaster monitoring. | Operational |
| AEISS: Advanced Electronic Image Scanning System | High resolution optical imagers | High resolution imager for land applications of cartography and disaster monitoring. | Operational |
| AGRI: Advanced Geostationary Radiation Imager | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | A multiple-channel radiation imager, one of the primary instruments aboard FY-4. Technically featured by a precisely designed two-mirror structure, capable of accurate and flexible sensing in two dimensions, and minute-level fast regional scanning. Frequent Earth imaging over 14 bands with off-axis three reflections of the primary optic system. On-board black body available for IR calibrations at very short time intervals. | Operational |
| AHI: Advanced Himawari Imager | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Measures cloud cover, cloud motion, cloud height, cloud properties, water vapour, rainfalll, sea surface temperatures and Earth radiation, dust, aerosols, volcanic ash, fires, snow and ice cover. | Operational |
| AIRS: Atmospheric Infra-red Sounder | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders | High spectral resolution measurement of temperature and humidity profiles in the atmosphere. Long-wave Earth surface emissivity. Cloud diagnostics. Trace gas profiles. Surface temperatures. | Operational |
| AIS (RCM): Automated Identification System (RADARSAT Constellation) | Data collection | Ship identification (name, location, heading, cargo, etc). | Operational |
| AIS Receiver (MDASat-1): Automatic Identification System Receiver (MDASat-1) | Data collection | MDASat-1 is equipped with an upgraded AIS receiver from its predecessor, ZACube-2. It will be capable of detecting AIS and AIS-LR messages. Additionally, it has the ability to capture raw data in the maritime spectrum which opens up the possibility to perform diagnostic testing to assess signal interference conditions in the band and their effect on the decoding of messages. | Operational |
| AIS: AIS Receiver | Data collection | Reception of VHF AIS (Automatic Identification System). | Operational |
| AIS: Automatic Identification System | Data collection | Maritime Traffic Monitoring to augment Synthetic Aperture Radar Maritime services | Operational |
| AIS: Automatic Identification System | Other | Automated location and tracking of vessels | Operational |
| ALT: Radar Altimeter | Radar altimeters | Global ocean topography, sea level and gravity field measurements. | Operational |
| AMI: Advanced Meteorological Imager | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Continuous monitoring capability for the near real-time generation of high-resolution meteorological products and long-term change analysis of land/sea surface temperature and cloud coverage. | Operational |
| AMR-C: Advanced Microwave Radiometer for Climate | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) | Capabilities of the AMR with the addition of an on-board calibrator for high stability wet-tropospheric path delay correction. | Operational |
| AMR-S: AMR-S Two-Beam Microwave Radiometer | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) | Capabilities of the AMR with the addition of a 2nd beam to provide wet-tropospheric path delay correction within both swaths of the primary radar instrument (KaRIn) | Operational |
| AMR: Advanced Microwave Radiometer | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) | Altimeter data to correct for errors caused by water vapour and cloud-cover. Also measures total water vapour and brightness temperature. | Operational |
| AMSR2: Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) | Measurements of water vapour, cloud liquid water, precipitation, winds, sea surface temperature, sea ice concentration, snow cover, soil moisture. | Operational |
| AMSR3: Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 3 | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) | Measurements of water vapour, cloud liquid water, precipitation including snowfall, winds, sea surface temperature, sea ice concentration, snow cover, soil moisture. | Operational |
| AMSU-A: Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders | All-weather night-day temperature sounding to an altitude of 45 km. | Operational |
| AMSU-A: Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders | All-weather night-day temperature sounding to an altitude of 45 km. AMSU-A on Aqua is still partially operational, with 9 of the 15 channels working and collecting data. | Operational |
| ARGUS 2000 | Earth radiation budget radiometers | ARGUS 2000 can be utilized to map the spatial variation of greenhouse gases. Measurement interpretation requires spacecraft attitude information for an accurate geolocation of the spectrometer surface pixel, application of a radiative transfer retrieval algorithm and knowledge of surface cloud conditions and topography. Utilizing a near nadir-pointing configuration, the spectrometer can record infrared radiation emitted from the Earth’s surface and atmosphere to space. | Operational |
| ASCAT: Advanced Scatterometer | Scatterometers | Measures wind speed and direction over ocean, soil moisture, sea ice cover, sea ice type, snow cover and snow parameters and vegetation parameters | Operational |
| ASM: Absolute Scalar Magnetometer | Magnetic field | Absolute calibration of Vector Field Magnetometer on board Swarm satellites. | Operational |
| ASTER: Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer | High resolution optical imagers | Surface and cloud imaging with high spatial resolution, stereoscopic observation of local topography, cloud heights, volcanic plumes, and generation of local surface digital elevation maps. Surface temperature and emissivity. ASTER SWIR detectors are no longer functioning due to anomalously high SWIR detector temperatures. ASTER SWIR data acquired since April 2008 are not useable, and show saturation of values and severe striping. All attempts to bring the SWIR bands back to life have failed, and no further action is envisioned. | Operational |
| ATLAS: Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System | Lidars | Provide date on ice sheet height and sea ice thickness, land altitude, aerosol height distributions, cloud height and boundary layer height. | Operational |
| ATLID: ATmospheric LIDar | Lidars | Derivation of cloud and aerosol properties – Measurement of molecular and particle backscatter in Rayleigh, co-polar and cross-polar Mie channels. | Operational |
| ATMS: Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders | Collects microwave radiance data that when combined with the CrIS data will permit calculation of atmospheric temperature and water vapour profiles. | Operational |
| AVHRR/3: Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer/3 | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Measurements of land and sea surface temperature, cloud cover, snow and ice cover, soil moisture and vegetation indices. Data also used for volcanic eruption monitoring. | Operational |
| AWiFS: Advanced Wide Field Sensor | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Vegetation and crop monitoring, resource assessment (regional scale), forest mapping, land cover/ land use mapping, and change detection. | Operational |
| Advanced GOCI: Advanced Geostationary Ocean Colour Imager | Ocean colour instruments | Ocean colour information, coastal zone monitoring, land resources monitoring. | Operational |
| AltiKa: Ka-band Altimeter | Radar altimeters | Sea surface height. | Operational |
| BBR (EarthCARE): BroadBand Radiometer (EarthCARE) | Earth radiation budget radiometers | Top of the atmosphere radiances and radiative flux. | Operational |
| BRLK S-range: S-band Synthetic Aperture Radar | Imaging microwave radars | Disaster monitoring, sea surface monitoring, information support of environmental managment | Operational |
| C-Band SAR: C-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar | Imaging microwave radars | Marine core services, land monitoring and emergency services. Monitoring sea ice zones and arctic environment. Surveillance of marine environment, monitoring land surface motion risks, mapping of land surfaces (forest, water and soil, agriculture), mapping in support of humanitarian aid in crisis situations. | Operational |
| C-SAR: C-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar | Imaging microwave radars | Earth resources, environmental monitoring, land use, urban studies. | Operational |
| CCD (ZY Series): CCD and multispectral imager | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Earth resources, environmental monitoring, land use. | Operational |
| CCOR-1: Compact Coronagraph – 1 | Space environment | Not specified | Operational |
| CCOR-2: Compact Coronagraph – 2 | Space environment | Not specified | Operational |
| CER: Coherent Electromagnetic Radio Tomography | Space environment | Radio transmission from e-POP to ground for radio propagation and ionospheric scintillation measurements. | Operational |
| CERES: Cloud and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System | Earth radiation budget radiometers | Long term measurement of the Earth’s radiation budget and atmospheric radiation from the top of the atmosphere to the surface; provision of an accurate and self-consistent cloud and radiation database. | Operational |
| CIRC: Compact InfraRed Camera | Other | Active fire detection. Land surface temperature. | Operational |
| CLARA: Compact Lightweight Absolute Radiometer | Earth radiation budget radiometers | CLARA is a scientific instrument that will be used to determine the total solar irradiance of the Sun. | Operational |
| COCTS: China Ocean Colour & Temperature Scanner | Ocean colour instruments | Ocean chlorophyll, ocean yellow substance absorbance, Sea-ice surface temperature. | Operational |
| COSI: Corea SAR Instrument | Imaging microwave radars | SAR for land applications of cartography and disaster monitoring. | Operational |
| COWVR: Compact Ocean Wind Vector Radiometer | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) | Hosted on the ISS, COWVR measures the direction and speed of winds at the ocean surface | Operational |
| CPR (EarthCARE): Cloud Profiling Radar (EarthCARE) | Cloud profile and rain radars | Measurement of cloud properties, light precipitation, vertical motion. | Operational |
| CSG SAR: COSMO-SkyMed di Seconda Generazione SAR | Imaging microwave radars | All-weather images of ocean, land and ice for monitoring of land surface processes, ice, environmental monitoring, risk management, environmental resources, maritime management, Earth topographic mapping. | Operational |
| CZI: Coastal Zone Imager | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Imagery of coastal regions – estuaries, tidal regions, etc. | Operational |
| CrIS: Cross-track Infrared Sounder | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders | Daily measurements of vertical atmospheric distribution of temperature, moisture, and pressure. MWIR non-operational on Suomi NPP effective 12 July 2021. | Operational |
| DCS (GOES): Data Collection System (GOES) | Data collection | Collects data on temperature (air/water), atmospheric pressure, humidity and wind speed/direction, speed and direction of ocean and river currents. | Operational |
| DCS: Data Collecting System Transponder | Data collection | Data collection and communication. | Operational |
| DCS: Data Collecting System Transponder | Data collection | Data collection and communication. | Operational |
| DCS: Data Collection System | Data collection | Collects data on temperature (air/water), atmospheric pressure, humidity and wind speed/direction, speed and direction of ocean and river currents. | Operational |
| DDMI: Delay Doppler Mapping Instrument | Other | Constellation of bistatic radar receivers using GPS satellite transmitters to detect ocean surface roughness and estimate near-surface wind speed from calm sea through hurricane force conditions and under all levels of precipitation. | Operational |
| DGXX-S: Doppler Orbitography and Radio-positioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS) – New Generation XX-S | Precision orbit | Precise orbit determination; Real time onboard orbit determination (navigation). The main changes from previous versions of DORIS are the change of DORIS antenna location for compliance with each potential launch vehicle; improvement in modeling the Solar Panels position; new data in Telemetry allowing “pole product” generation. | Operational |
| DGXX: Doppler Orbitography and Radio-positioning Integrated by Satellite-New Generation XX | Precision orbit | Precise orbit determination; Real time onboard orbit determination (navigation). The main changes from previous versions of DORIS are the instrument will be fully redunded; software can be fully reloaded without any mission interruption; platform attitude is provided in real time to DORIS and used by Diode (on-board DORIS navigator), also downloaded by DORIS in the science telemetry flow; a dosimeter is included in the electronic box; the altimeter will received information from Doris onboard for real-time tracking | Operational |
| DPR: Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar | Cloud profile and rain radars | Measures precipitation rate classified by rain and snow, in latitudes up to 65 degrees. | Operational |
| EFI: Electric Field Instrument | Space environment and gravity instruments | Thermal ion imager and Langmuir probe to measure ion temp, electron temp, ion density, electron density, spacecraft potential and ion incident angle. | Operational |
| EMIT: Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation | Hyperspectral imagers | Imaging spectroscopy from the visible to short wavelength infrared (VSWIR) to determine surface mineral compostion in the Earth’s arid land dust source regions. | Operational |
| EPIC: Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Provides global spectral images of the entire sunlit face of Earth and insight into Earth’s energy balance. EPIC’s observations provides a unique angular perspective, and will be used in science applications to measure ozone amounts, aerosol amounts, cloud height and phase, vegetation properties, hotspot land properties and UV radiation estimates of Earth’s surface. | Operational |
| ERM-2: Earth Radiation Measurement-2 | Earth radiation budget radiometers | Measures Earth radiation gains and losses on regional, zonal and global scales. | Operational |
| ES: Electron Spectrometer | Space environment | Space Physics experiment for meausring speed and direction of electrons coming from the sun. | Operational |
| ESIP: Ionospheric plasma energy spectrometer | Space environment | Measurement of local parameters of ionospheric plasma | Operational |
| EXIS: Extreme Ultraviolet and X-ray Irradiance Sensors | Other | Monitors the whole-Sun X-ray irradiance in two bands and the whole-Sun EUV irradiance in five bands. | Operational |
| FAI: Fast Auroral Imager | Space environment | Measures the large-scale auroral emissions in the 630-1100 nm wavelength range. The FAI imager system produces 16-bit digital images of the near infrared band at one image per second (CASSIOPE is a 3-axis stabilized platform),and the 630-nm wavelength at two images per minute, giving adequate temporal resolution to investigate the above scientific objectives. | Operational |
| FC: Faraday Cup | Space environment | The Faraday Cup is a retarding potential particle detector that provides high time resolution solar wind proton bulk properties (wind speed, density and temperature). Instrument Measurements include: Alpha particles differential directional flux, Proton differential directional flux, Solar Wind Density, Solar Wind Temperature, and Solar Wind Velocity. | Operational |
| FCI: Flexible Combined Imager | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Measurements of cloud cover, cloud top height, precipitation, cloud motion, vegetation, radiation fluxes, convection, air mass analysis, cirrus cloud discrimination, tropopause monitoring, stability monitoring, total ozone and sea surface temperature. | Operational |
| FGM: FluxGate Magnetometer | Magnetic field | Measurement of magnetic field in situ | Operational |
| GALS: Spectrometer of galactic cosmic rays | Space environment | Measurement of the proton flux density | Operational |
| GAP: GPS receiver-based Attitude, Position, and profiling experiment (GAP) | Space environment | Used for spacecraft position and attitude determination and for ionospheric radio occultation profiling measurements in which the relative phase delay of the measured L1 and L2 signals (at frequencies of 1.57542 GHz and 1.2276 GHz, respectively) from different satellites of the GPS constellation will be used to determine the electron density profile of the ionosphere using tomographic techniques. The GAP is turned on an average of 10% of the time, following a schedule devised by the science team. | Operational |
| GEMS: Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer | Atmospheric chemistry | Measurements of atmospheric chemistry, precursors of aerosols and ozone in particular, in high temporal and spatial resolution over Asia. | Operational |
| GERB: Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget | Earth radiation budget radiometers | Measures long and short wave radiation emitted and reflected from the Earth’s surface, clouds and top of atmosphere. Full Earth disk, all channels in 5 minutes. | Operational |
| GGAK-E: Module for Geophysical Measurements | Space environment and magnetic field | Monitoring and forecasting of solar activity, radiation and magnetic field in the near-Earth space, monitoring of natural and modified magnetosphere, ionosphere and upper atmosphere. | Operational |
| GGAK-M: Module for Geophysical Measurements (SEM) | Space environment and magnetic field | Space Environmental Monitoring (SEM), heliogeophysical. | Operational |
| GGAK-VE: Module for Geophysical Measurements | Space environment | Monitoring and forecasting of solar activity, radiation and magnetic field in the near-Earth space, monitoring of natural and modified magnetosphere, ionosphere and upper atmosphere. | Operational |
| GIIRS: Geostationary Interferometric Infrared Sounder | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders | Measurements of three dimensional atmospheric structure. Large-area, continuous, fast, and accurate vertical air soundings of temperature and humidity. Subsequent units have slightly different specifications. | Operational |
| GLM: Geostationary Lightning Mapper | Lightning sensors | Detect total lightning flash rate over near full disk. | Operational |
| GMI: GPM Microwave Imager | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) | Measures rainfall rates over oceans and land, combined rainfall structure and surface rainfall rates with associated latent heating. Used to produce three hour, daily, and monthly total rainfall maps over oceans and land. | Operational |
| GNOS-1: GNSS Radio Occultation Sounder-1 | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders | Atmospheric sounding for weather forecasting. | Operational |
| GNOS-2: GNSS Radio Occultation Sounder-2 | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders | Atmospheric sounding for weather forecasting. | Operational |
| GNSS POD Receiver: Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) Precise Orbit Determination (POD) Receiver | Precision orbit and atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders | Precision orbit determination. | Operational |
| GNSS-RO Receiver: Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS)- Radio Occultation (RO) Receiver | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders | Measurement of bending angles of GNSS satellite signals occulted by Earth’s atmosphere for retrieval of temperature and humidity profiles. | Operational |
| GOES Comms: Communications package on GOES | Communications | Not specified | Operational |
| GOME-2: Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment – 2 | Atmospheric chemistry | Measurement of total column amounts and stratospheric and tropospheric profiles of ozone. Also amounts of H20, NO2, OClO, BrO, SO2 and HCHO. | Operational |
| GPS Receiver (Swarm): Global Positioning System (GPS) Receiver (Swarm) | Precision orbit | Provides position and timing determination | Operational |
| GPSP: Global Positioning System Payload | Precision orbit | Precision orbit determination. | Operational |
| GPSRO (Terra-SAR): GPS Radio Occultation System | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders | Measurements of atmospheric temperature, pressure and water vapour content. | Operational |
| GRAS: Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) Receiver for Atmospheric Sounding | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders and precision orbit | GNSS receiver for atmospheric temperature and humidity profile sounding. | Operational |
| GSA (1): Hyperspectral imaging equipment | Hyperspectral imagers | Land surface monitoring | Operational |
| Geoton-L1 (2): Geoton-L1 | High resolution optical imagers | Multispectral images of land surfaces and Oceans. | Operational |
| HARP2: Hyper-Angular Rainbow Polarimeter | Multiple direction/polarisation radiometers | Polarimeter for measuring aerosol optical properties, clouds and aerosol types. | Operational |
| HEPD: High Energy Particle Detector | Space environment | Fluxes of electrons (3 – 100 MeV), protons (30 – 200 MeV) and light nuclei. Measurement of the increase of the electron and proton fluxes due to short-time perturbations of the radiation belts caused by solar, terrestrial and anthropic phenomena. | Operational |
| HIRAS-1: Hyperspectral Infrared Atmospheric Sounder-1 | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Atmospheric sounding for weather forecasting. | Operational |
| HIRAS-2: Hyperspectral Infrared Atmospheric Sounder-2 | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Atmospheric sounding for weather forecasting. | Operational |
| HIRS/4: High Resolution Infra-red Sounder/4 | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders | Atmospheric temperature profiles and data on cloud parameters, humidity soundings, water vapour, total ozone content, and surface temperatures. Same as HIRS/3, with 10 km IFOV. | Operational |
| HRC(HRMIS): High Resolution Camera | High resolution optical imagers | Acquire high resolution land surface images. | Operational |
| HRMX: High Resolution Multi Spectral | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | For crops and vegetation dynamics, natural resources census, disaster management and large scale mapping of themes. | Operational |
| HSI-2 (HJ-2A): Hyper Spectrum Imager 2 | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Hyperspectral measurements for environment and disaster management operations. | Operational |
| HSI: Hyperspectral Imager | Hyperspectral imagers and imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/ir) | Detailed monitoring and characterization of rock and soil targets, vegetation, inland and coastal waters on a global scale. | Operational |
| HYC: HYperspectral Camera | Hyperspectral imagers and imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/ir) | Hyperspectral data for complex land ecosystem studies. | Operational |
| HiRAIS: High-Resolution Advanced Imaging System | High resolution optical imagers | Biomass, FAPAR, fraction of vegetated land, land cover, LAI, NDVI, vegetation type. | Operational |
| HiRI: High-Resolution Imager | High resolution optical imagers | Cartography, land use, risk, agriculture and forestry, civil planning and mapping, digital terrain models, defence. | Operational |
| High Resolution Optical Sensor (CAS500-1) | High resolution optical imagers | Cartography, land use and planning | Operational |
| Himawari Comms: Communications package for Himawari | Communications | Not specified | Operational |
| Himawari DCS: Data Collection System for Himawari | Data collection | Not specified | Operational |
| Hyperspectral Detector | Hyperspectral imagers | Detect and measure vegetation biomass, atmospheric aerosol and chlorophyll fluorescence, and can also obtain the remote-sensing information of global forest carbon sinks. | Operational |
| IASI: Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders and atmospheric chemistry | Measures tropospheric moisture and temperature, column integrated contents of ozone, carbon monoxide, methane, nitrous oxide and other minor gases which affect tropospheric chemistry. Also measures sea surface and land temperature. | Operational |
| IKFS-2: IR-Fourier spectrometer | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders | Atmospheric temperature/humidity profiles, data on cloud parameters, water vapour & ozone column amounts, surface temperature. | Operational |
| IPM: Ionospheric PhotoMeter | Space environment | Observation of the night-sky 135.6 nm oxygen airglow intensity for the retrieval of ionospheric total electrons and NmF2 (sensitivity â¥150 counts.s-1.R-1); and observation of the bright-day 135.6 nm oxygen air glow intensity and the nitrogen air glow intensity of LBH (140-180 nmï¼(sensitivityâ¥1 counts.s-1.R-1) for the retrieval of oxygen-nitrogen ratio at the ionospheric altitude. | Operational |
| IR Camera (ZY-1-02E): Longwave infrared camera | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Not specified | Operational |
| IRM: Imaging and Rapid-scanning ion Mass spectrometer | Space environment | Measures the composition and 3-dimensional velocity distributions of ions. | Operational |
| IRMSS-2 (HJ-2): Infrared Multispectral Scanner – 2 | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Infrared measurements for environment and natural disaster monitoring. | Operational |
| IRS: Thermal and Multispectral Scanner | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Earth resources, environmental monitoring, land use. | Operational |
| IVM: Ion Velocity Meter | Space environment | Measures ion velocity in the upper atmosphere – a key metric for space weather predictions as well as ion concentration, composition and temperature. Measuring these parameters helps detect the effects of geomagnetic and solar storms within our atmosphere. | Operational |
| Imager | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Measures cloud cover, atmospheric radiance, winds, atmospheric stability, rainfall estimates. Used to provide severe storm warnings/ monitoring day and night (type, amount, storm features). | Operational |
| Imager (INSAT 3D): Very High Resolution Radiometer | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Cloud cover, severe storm warnings/monitoring day and night (type, amount, storm features), atmospheric radiance winds, atmospheric stability rainfall. | Operational |
| Infrared Scanning Radiometer | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders | Measurement of temperatures for meteorology purpose. | Operational |
| KHCS: KhalifaSat Camera System | High resolution optical imagers | Biomass, FAPAR, fraction of vegetated land, land cover, LAI, NDVI, vegetation type. | Operational |
| KMSS: Multispectral Imager (VIS) system | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Multispectral images of land & sea surfaces and ice cover. | Operational |
| KShMSA-VR: High resolution wide capture multispectral optical sensor | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Land surface and ocean monitoring | Operational |
| Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn) | Radar altimeters | Swath mapping radar altimeter that provides measurements for surface water. | Operational |
| L-band Radiometer (SMAP) | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) | High-accuracy measurements of brightness temperatures for global estimates of surface soil moisture for climate modeling and weather prediction | Operational |
| LAERT: Low-frequency radar | Space environment | Complex global sensing of the altitude profile of the electron density in the Earth’s ionosphere. | Operational |
| LCCRA (LARES): Laser Corner Cube Reflector Assembly | Precision orbit | Accuracy measurements on Lense-Thirring effect and baseline tracking data for General Relativity study and precision geodesy. Also for calibration of radar altimeter bias. | Operational |
| LCCRA (LARES-2): Laser Corner Cube Reflector Assembly | Precision orbit | Accuracy measurements on Lense-Thirring effect and baseline tracking data for General Relativity study and precision geodesy. Also for calibration of radar altimeter bias. Retro-reflectors are smaller (about 1 inch in diameter) than those mounted onboard LARES-1 and their number is much greater (about 300). | Operational |
| LI: Lightning Imager | Lightning sensors | Real time lightning detection (cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground strokes, with no discrimination between the two), lightning location. | Operational |
| LISS-III (Resourcesat): Linear Imaging Self Scanner – III (Resourcesat) | High resolution optical imagers | Data used for vegetation type assessment, resource assessment, crop stress detection, crop production forecasting, forestry, land use and land cover change. | Operational |
| LISS-IV: Linear Imaging Self Scanner – IV | High resolution optical imagers | Vegetation monitoring, improved crop discrimination, crop yield, disaster monitoring and rapid assessment of natural resources. | Operational |
| LLI: Low Light Imager | Other | Imager for vessel detection in low light conditions | Operational |
| LMI: Lightning Mapping Imager | Lightning sensors | Lightning mapping for locating thunder storms in flooding season, CMOS camera operating 0.77 µm to count flashes and intensity. | Operational |
| LRA (LAGEOS): Laser Retroreflector Array | Precision orbit | Baseline tracking data for precision geodesy. Also for calibration of radar altimeter bias. Several types used on various missions. | Operational |
| LRA (Sentinel-6): Laser Retroreflector Array (Sentinel-6) | Precision orbit | Not specified | Operational |
| LRA: Laser Retroreflector Array | Precision orbit | Baseline tracking data for precision orbit determination and/or geodesy. Also for calibration of radar altimeter bias. Several types used on various missions. (ASI involved in LAGEOS 2 development). | Operational |
| LRI: Laser Ranging Instrument | Gravity instruments | Inter-satellite ranging measurement to picometer level to be used to estimates for global models of the mean and time variable Earth gravity field. | Operational |
| LRIT: Low-Rate Information Transmission | Communications | Follow-on from the Weather Facsimile (WEFAX) Processing System. | Operational |
| Laser Radar | Lidars | Detect and measure vegetation biomass, atmospheric aerosol and chlorophyll fluorescence, and can also obtain the remote-sensing information of global forest carbon sinks. | Operational |
| Laser Reflectors | Precision orbit | Measures distance between the satellite and the laser tracking stations. | Operational |
| Laser Reflectors (ESA): Laser Reflectors | Precision orbit | Measures distance between the satellite and the laser tracking stations. | Operational |
| MAESTRO: Measurements of Aerosol Extinction in the Stratosphere and Troposphere Retrieved by Occultation | Atmospheric chemistry | Chemical processes involved in the depletion of the ozone layer, and now including a high quality water vapour data product. | Operational |
| MAG: Fluxgate Magnetometer | Space environment | Magnetometer and plasma sensor to measure solar wind properties for forecasting geomagnetic storms. The Plasma-mag instrument comprises a Faraday Cup (measures solar wind) and a Fluxgate Magnetometer, as well as two space weather instruments: the Electron Spectrometer and the Pulse Height Analyzer. | Operational |
| MAYAK: Dual frequency radio transmitter | Space environment | Radio translucence of the Earth’s ionosphere in order to determine the parameters of the ionosphere in the sub-satellite area | Operational |
| MBEI: Multi-Band Earth Imager | High resolution optical imagers | Multispectral scanner images of land surface. | Operational |
| MERSI-2: Medium Resolution Spectral Imager-2 | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Measurement of vegetation indexes and ocean colour. | Operational |
| MERSI-3: Medium Resolution Spectral Imager-3 | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Measurement of vegetation indexes and ocean colour. | Operational |
| MERSI-LL: Medium Resolution Spectral Imager – Low-Light | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Measurement of vegetation indexes and ocean colour. | Operational |
| MERSI-RM: Medium Resolution Spectral Imager – Rainfall Measurement | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Measurement of vegetation indexes and ocean colour. | Operational |
| METimage: Multi Spectral Imager | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Operational multi spectral imager for meteorological EPS-SG VIS/IR Imaging Mission (VII): imagery data for global and regional NWP, NWC, and climate monitoring with information on LST, SST, clouds coverage, height and micro-physics, land surfaces (vegetation, snow/ice, fire), water vapour column, aerosol and atmospheric motion vectors. Provides collocated cloud mask, height & characterisation as well as intra-pixel heterogeneity to other EPS-SG missions (with larger footprint). | Operational |
| MGF: MaGnetic Field instrument | Magnetic field | The MGF consists of dual, tri-axial fluxgate magnetometers mounted on an 80-cm carbon fibre boom for measurements of magnetic field perturbations to a precision of 0.0625 nanotesla, from which to infer small-scale field-aligned currents. The MGF is turned on an average of 20% of the time, following a schedule devised by the science team. | Operational |
| MHS: Microwave Humidity Sounder | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders | Atmospheric humidity profiles, cloud cover, cloud liquid, water content, ice boundaries and precipitation data. MHS on NOAA-18 is considered failed following an anomaly on 21 October 2018. | Operational |
| MIRAS (SMOS): Microwave Imaging Radiometer using Aperture Synthesis (MIRAS) | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) and multiple direction/polarisation radiometers | Objective is to meassure sea surface salinity and soil moisture in support of climate, meteorology, hydrology, and oceanography applications. New applications include Soil freeze/thaw, ocean severe winds, sea ice thickness, vegetation optical depth and solar flux. | Operational |
| MIRS: Middle IR Scanner | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Scanner images of land surface in middle infra-red range. | Operational |
| MISR: Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer | Multiple direction/polarisation radiometers | Measurements of global surface albedo, aerosol and vegetation properties. Also provides multi-angle bidirectional data (1% angle-to-angle accuracy) for cloud cover and reflectances at the surface and aerosol opacities. Global and local modes. | Operational |
| MLS (EOS-Aura): Microwave Limb Sounder (EOS-Aura) | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders | Measures lower stratospheric temperature and concentration of H2O, O3, ClO, HCl, OH, HNO3, N2O and SO2. | Operational |
| MODIS: MODerate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) and ocean colour instruments | Data on biological and physical processes on the surface of the Earth and in the lower atmosphere, and on global dynamics. Surface temperatures of land and ocean, chlorophyll fluorescence, land cover measurements, cloud cover (day and night). | Operational |
| MSG Comms: Communications package for MSG | Communications | Communication package onboard MSG series satellites. | Operational |
| MSI (BJ-2): Multispectral Imager | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | SSTL-300 S1 Imager also known as VHRI 100 (Very High Resolution Imager 100). | Operational |
| MSI (EarthCARE): Multi-Spectral Imager (EarthCARE) | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Observation of cloud properties and aerosol (aerosols to be confirmed). | Operational |
| MSI (Sentinel-2): Multi-Spectral Instrument (Sentinel-2) | High resolution optical imagers | Optical high spatial resolution imagery over land and coastal areas for Copernicus operational services. | Operational |
| MSS: Multispectral imaging system | High resolution optical imagers | Multispectral images of land & sea surfaces and ice cover. | Operational |
| MSU-GS/VE: Multispectral scanning imager-radiometer | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Operational metrology, hydrology, climate monitoring and environmental monitoring | Operational |
| MSU-GS: Multispectral scanning imager-radiometer | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Measurements of cloud cover, cloud top height, precipitation, cloud motion, albedo, vegetation, convection, air mass analysis, tropopause monitoring, stability monitoring, total ozone and surface temperature, fire detection. | Operational |
| MSU-IK-SR: Multi-channel medium and far IR range radiometer | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Parameters of clouds, snow, ice and land cover, vegetation, surface temperature, fire detection. | Operational |
| MSU-MR: Low-resolution multispectral scanning imager-radiometer | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Parameters of clouds, snow, ice and land cover, vegetation, surface temperature, fire detection. | Operational |
| MTVZA-GY: Scanning microwave imager-sounder | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) | Atmospheric temperature and humidity profiles, precipitation, sea-level wind speed, snow/ice coverage. | Operational |
| MUSI: Multiband Ionospheric Ultra-Violet Spectrum Imager | Space environment | Measurements of the airglow intensity from 120nm to 160nm for the retrieval of ionospheric NmF2 (sensitivity =150 counts.s-1.R-1) and oxygen-nitrogen ratio. | Operational |
| MUX (CBERS-4): Multispectral CCD Camera | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Agriculture; Forestry; Geology; Natural disaster management; Cartography; Environment monitoring; Fire detection, localization and counting; Hydrology, coastal water mapping; Land use; Surveillance and law enforcement | Operational |
| MUX (CBERS-4A): Multispectral CCD Camera | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Agriculture; Forestry; Geology; Natural disaster management; Cartography; Environment monitoring; Fire detection, localization and counting; Hydrology, coastal water mapping; Land use; Surveillance and law enforcement | Operational |
| MUX (GF-1): Multispectral CCD Camera | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Earth resources, environmental monitoring, land use. | Operational |
| MUX (GF-2): Multispectral CCD Camera | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Earth resources, environmental monitoring, land use. | Operational |
| MUX (ZY-3-02): Multispectral CCD Camera | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Earth resources, environmental monitoring, land use. | Operational |
| MWHS-2: Micro-Wave Humidity Sounder-2 | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders | Vertical distribution of large temperature and humidity | Operational |
| MWI: Microwave Instrument | Gravity instruments | Includes BlackJack Global Positioning System (Turbo Rogue Space Receiver) and High Accuracy Inter-satellite Ranging System (aka K-band Ranging System) for Inter-satellite ranging system estimates for global models of the mean and time variable Earth gravity field. | Operational |
| MWIR (GF-4): Medium Wavelength Infrared Camera | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Infrared measurements for environmental and natural disaster monitoring. | Operational |
| MWR: Microwave Radiometer | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders | Cross-track scanning microwave radiometer. Provides measurements of atmospheric humidity and temperature. | Operational |
| MWRI-1: Micro-Wave Radiation Imager-1 | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) | All weather observations of precipitation, cloud features, vegetation, soil moisture sea ice, etc. | Operational |
| MWRI-2: Micro-Wave Radiation Imager-2 | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) | All weather observations of precipitation, cloud features, vegetation, soil moisture sea ice, etc. | Operational |
| MWRI-RM: Micro-Wave Radiation Imager for the Rainfall Mission | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) | Multi-purpose imagery with emphasis on precipitation | Operational |
| MWRI: Microwave Radiometer Imager | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) | Ocean wind and temperature measurements. | Operational |
| MWTS-2: Micro-Wave Temperature Sounder-2 | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders | Atmospheric sounding measurements. | Operational |
| MWTS-3: Micro-Wave Temperature Sounder-3 | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders | Atmospheric sounding measurements. | Operational |
| MX (Cartosat-3): Multispectral VNIR | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | High resolution land observation and cartography | Operational |
| Magnetometer (GOES) | Magnetic field | Not specified | Operational |
| Multi-Angle Multi-Spectral Camera | High resolution optical imagers | Detect and measure vegetation biomass, atmospheric aerosol and chlorophyll fluorescence, and can also obtain the remote-sensing information of global forest carbon sinks. | Operational |
| NACHOS Hyperspectral Imager | Hyperspectral imagers | Not specified | Operational |
| NAOMI (MS): New Astrosat Optical Modular Imager (MS) | High resolution optical imagers | NAOMI – MS (2m GSD, 10.3km Swath) is a TMA opto-mechanical instrument employing 24-stage TDI scanning. Data is used for various applications including cartography, land use planning and management, national security, etc. | Operational |
| NAOMI (PAN): New Astrosat Optical Modular Imager (PAN) | High resolution optical imagers | NAOMI – PAN (0.5m GSD, 10.3km Swath) is a TMA opto-mechanical instrument employing a line scanning technique. Data is used for various applications including cartography, land use planning and management, national security, etc. | Operational |
| NISTAR: NIST Advanced Radiometer | Earth radiation budget radiometers | Measure the energy emitted and reflected by the Earth. | Operational |
| NMS: Neutral Mass Spectrometer | Space environment | The Neutral Mass and velocity Spectrometer (NMS) measures mass composition and velocity of neutral atmospheric species in the 1-40 amu mass and 0.1-2 km/s velocity range. | Operational |
| NRD: Navigation Radar Detector Test Mission | Other | Navigation Radar Detector, detecting and identifiying maritime navigation radars. | Operational |
| NVK: Low-frequency wave complex | Space environment | Measurement of magnetic electric fields of near-Earth space | Operational |
| NigeriaSat 2 Remote Sensing (Med and High Res) | High resolution optical imagers | High resolution images for monitoring of land surface and coastal processes and for agricultural, geological and hydrological applications. | Operational |
| NigeriaSat X Remote Sensing (Medium Resolution) | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | High resolution images for monitoring of land surface and coastal processes and for agricultural, geological and hydrological applications. | Operational |
| OCI: Ocean Color Instrument | Ocean colour instruments | Ocean color slit-grating imaging spectrometer/radiometer for measuring top of atmosphere reflectance which is used to estimate ocean leaving light that contains information on biological components plus aerosol and cloud propertiesl | Operational |
| OCM (Oceansat-3): Ocean Colour Monitor (Oceansat-3) | Ocean colour instruments | Ocean colour data, Estimation of phytoplankton concentration, identification of potential fishing zones, assessment of primary productivity. | Operational |
| OLCI: Ocean and Land Colour Imager | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) and ocean colour instruments | Marine and land services. | Operational |
| OLI-2: Operational Land Imager 2 | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Measures surface radiance, land cover state, and change (e.g., vegetation type). Used as multi-purpose imagery for land applications. | Operational |
| OLI: Operational Land Imager | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Measures surface radiance, land cover state, and change (e.g., vegetation type). Used as multi-purpose imagery for land applications. | Operational |
| OLS: Operational Linescan System | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Used to monitor the global distribution of clouds and cloud top temperatures twice each day. The archive data set consists of low resolution global and high resolution regional, imagery recorded along a 3,000 km scan, satellite ephemeris and solar and lunar information. Infrared pixel values correspond to a temperature range of 190 to 310 Kelvins in 256 equally spaced steps. Onboard calibration is performed during each scan. Visible pixels are relative values ranging from 0 to 63 rather than absolute values in Watts per m^2. Instrumental gain levels are adjusted to maintain constant cloud reference values under varying conditions of solar and lunar illumination. Telescope pixel values are replaced by Photo Multiplier Tube (PMT) values at night. A telescope pixel is 0.55 km at high resolution (fine mode) and 2.7 km at low resolution(smooth mode). Low resolution values are the mean of the appropriate 25 high resolution values. | Operational |
| OMI: Ozone Measuring Instrument | Atmospheric chemistry | Mapping of ozone columns, key air quality components (NO2, SO2, BrO, OClO and aerosols), measurements of cloud pressure and coverage, global distribution and trends in UV-B radiation. | Operational |
| OMPS-L: Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite – Limb Profiler | Atmospheric chemistry | Measures high resolution vertical distribution of ozone and aerosols. | Operational |
| OMPS-N: Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite – Nadir Profiler | Atmospheric chemistry | Measures total amount of ozone in the atmosphere and the ozone concentration variation with altitude. | Operational |
| OMS-L: Ozone Monitoring Suite -Limb | Atmospheric chemistry | Ozone total column vertical profile measurements. | Operational |
| OMS-N: Ozone Monitoring Suite -Nadir | Atmospheric chemistry | SUVI uses extreme ultraviolet spectral lines to achieve long-term and continuous observations of the sun, so as to obtain high temporal and high spatial resolution images of the solar corona. | Operational |
| OSIRIS: Optical Spectrograph and Infra-Red Imaging System | Atmospheric chemistry | Detects aerosol layers and abundance of species such as O3, NO2, OClO, BrO and NO. Consists of spectrograph and IR imager. | Operational |
| Optical imager (Eaglet-II): Eaglet-II Optical Imager | High resolution optical imagers | High-resolution optical images in RGB spectral channels with AIS information, developed by OHB Company. | Operational |
| Optical imager (HEO): Hawk for Earth Observation (HEO) Optical Imager | High resolution optical imagers | High-resolution optical images in PAN, MS and VNIR spectral channels, developed by ARGOTEC Company | Operational |
| P-Band SAR: P-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar | Imaging microwave radars | Forest biomass monitoring. Products are Forest Above Ground Biomass, Forest height and Forest Distrubance. | Operational |
| PALSAR-2: Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar-2 | Imaging microwave radars | Disaster monitoring, land monitoring, agricultural monitoring, natural resource exploration, global forest monitoring, potential use and interferometry. | Operational |
| PALSAR-3: Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar-3 | Imaging microwave radars | Disaster monitoring, land monitoring, agricultural monitoring, natural resource exploration, global forest monitoring, potential use and interferometry. | Operational |
| PAN (BJ-2): Panchromatic Imager | High resolution optical imagers | SSTL-300 S1 Imager also known as VHRI 100 (Very High Resolution Imager 100). | Operational |
| PAN (CBERS-4): Panchromatic and Multispectral Imager | High resolution optical imagers | Agriculture; Forestry; Geology; Natural disaster management; Cartography; Environment monitoring; Fire detection, localization and counting; Hydrology, coastal water mapping; Land use; Surveillance and law enforcement | Operational |
| PAN (Cartosat-2A/2B): Panchromatic Camera | High resolution optical imagers | High resolution stereo images for large scale (better than 1:0000) mapping applications, urban applications, GIS ingest. | Operational |
| PAN (Cartosat-2E): Panchromatic Camera | High resolution optical imagers | High resolution stereo images for large scale (better than 1:0000) mapping applications, urban applications, GIS ingest. | Operational |
| PAN (Cartosat-3): Panchromatic sensor | High resolution optical imagers | High resolution images for study of topography, urban areas, development of DTM, run-off models etc. Urban sprawl, forest cover/timber volume, land use change. | Operational |
| PAN (GF-1): Panchromatic and multispectral imager | High resolution optical imagers | Earth resources, environmental monitoring, land use, urban studies. | Operational |
| PAN (GF-2): Panchromatic and multispectral imager | High resolution optical imagers | Earth resources, environmental monitoring, land use, urban studies. | Operational |
| PAN (ZY Series): Panchromatic and multispectral imager | High resolution optical imagers | Earth resources, environmental monitoring, land use | Operational |
| PAN CAMERA: Panchromatic Camera | High resolution optical imagers | Panchromatic data. | Operational |
| PES: Total electron content meter | Space environment | Radio occultation measurement of amplitude and phase delays of signals of global navigation systems in order to determine the altitude distribution of the electron density of the Earth’s ionosphere | Operational |
| PHA: Pulse Height Analyzer | Space environment | Not specified | Operational |
| PHyTIR: Prototype HyspIRI Thermal Infrared Radiometer (PHyTIR) | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | This project will use a high-resolution thermal infrared radiometer to measure plant evapotranspiration, the loss of water from growing leaves and evaporation from the soil. | Operational |
| PMR: Precipitation Measurement Radar | Cloud profile and rain radars | Precipitation radar. | Operational |
| POSEIDON-3B Altimeter: Positioning Ocean Solid Earth Ice Dynamics Orbiting Navigator (Single frequency solid state radar altimeter) | Radar altimeters | Nadir viewing sounding radar for provision of real-time high precision sea surface topography, ocean circulation and wave height data. | Operational |
| POSEIDON-3C Altimeter: Positioning Ocean Solid Earth Ice Dynamics Orbiting Navigator (Single frequency solid state radar altimeter) | Radar altimeters | Nadir viewing sounding radar for provision of real-time high precision sea surface topography, ocean circulation and wave height data. | Operational |
| PSS: Panchromatic imaging system | High resolution optical imagers | Panchromatic data for environmental monitoring, agriculture and forestry. | Operational |
| Paz SAR-X: X Band Synthetic Aperture Radar | Imaging microwave radars | High resolution X-band radar for security, land use, urban management, environmental monitoring, risk management. Different acquisition modes: Spotlight (5 x 5-10 km SSD =<1 m), Scansar (100 x 100 km, SSD <=15 m); Stripmode (strips of 30 x 30 km with SSD 3 m). | Operational |
| Polarisation Imager | Other | Detect and measure vegetation biomass, atmospheric aerosol and chlorophyll fluorescence, and can also obtain the remote-sensing information of global forest carbon sinks. | Operational |
| Poseidon-4 Altimeter: Poseidon-4 SAR Radar Altimeter | Radar altimeters | Nadir viewing sounding radar for provision of real-time high-precision sea surface topography, ocean circulation and wave height data. | Operational |
| RFB: Radio Frequency Beacon | Space environment | Measures total electron content in Earthâs upper atmosphere to monitor space weather. | Operational |
| RRA: Retroreflector Array | Precision orbit | Satellite laser ranging for geodynamic measurements. | Operational |
| RRI: Radio Receiver Instrument | Space environment | The RRI measures wave electric fields in the 10Hz – 18MHz range, at magnitudes from 1 µV/m to 1 V/m to study the morphology and dynamics of ionospheric density structures, auroral wave-particle interactions, plasma nonlinear processes created by intense high frequency waves, and the mechanism of coherent wave backscatter. | Operational |
| S&R (GOES): Search and Rescue | Other | Satellite and ground based system to detect and locate aviators, mariners, and land-based users in distress. | Operational |
| S&R (NOAA): Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking | Communications | Satellite and ground based system to detect and locate aviators, mariners, and land-based users in distress. | Operational |
| S-band SAR | Imaging microwave radars | SAR imagery for a range of applications including agriculture, maritime and forestry | Operational |
| SAGE-III: Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment | Atmospheric chemistry | Limb-viewing measurements of aerosol, O3, H20, NO2, OClO, NO3, temperature and pressure in the stratosphere, upper troposphere, and mesosphere using solar occultation, lunar occultation and limb scatter measurement techniques. | Operational |
| SAR (RADARSAT-2): Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) C band | Imaging microwave radars | All-weather images of ocean, ice and land surfaces. Used for monitoring of coastal zones, polar ice, sea ice, sea state, geological features, vegetation and land surface processes. | Operational |
| SAR (RCM): Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) C band | Imaging microwave radars | All-weather, C-band data to support ecosystem monitoring, maritime surveillance and disaster management. | Operational |
| SAR (RISAT): Synthetic Aperature Radiometer (RISAT) | Imaging microwave radars | Radar backscatter measurements of land, water and ocean surfaces for applications in soil moisture, crop applications (under cloud cover), terrain mapping, etc. | Operational |
| SAR 2000: Synthetic Aperture Radar – 2000 | Imaging microwave radars | All-weather images of ocean, land and ice for monitoring of land surface processes, ice, environmental monitoring, risk management, environmental resources, maritime management, Earth topographic mapping. | Operational |
| SAR-L: L-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar | Imaging microwave radars | Land, ocean, emergencies, soil moisture, interferometry, others. | Operational |
| SCAT: Scatterometer | Scatterometers | Monitoring global sea surface winds. | Operational |
| SCAT: Wind SCATerometer | Scatterometers | Ocean surface wind vector | Operational |
| SEI: Suprathermal Electron Imager | Space environment | The SEI measures the electron energy and pitch angle distribution over the energy range of 1 to 200 eV, with particular emphasis on photoelectrons in the 1 to 50 eV range. The instrument now operates in passive mode as the High Voltage source has failed. | Operational |
| SEISS: Space Environment In Situ Suite | Space environment | Monitor proton, electron, and alpha particle fluxes. | Operational |
| SEM (FY-3): Space Environment Monitor | Space environment | Energetic particle spectrometer: Spectrometer for electrons (0.25-2.0 MeV), protons (6.4-38 MeV) and alpha-particles (15-60 MeV). To measure ionospheric electron temperature and density, and platform charge and dose. Specially arranged Langmuir Probe for electron temperature (0-1 eV) and density in the 10- 10^6 e/cm3 range | Operational |
| SEM (GOES): Space Environment Monitor | Space environment | Used for equipment failure analysis, solar flux measurement, solar storm warning, and magnetic and electric field measurement at satellite. | Operational |
| SEM (POES): Space Environment Monitor | Space environment | Used for equipment failure analysis, solar flux measurement, solar storm warning, and magnetic and electric field measurement at satellite. | Operational |
| SEMP: Space Environment Monitoring Package | Space environment | A suite that contains energetic particle detectors, magnetometer, and space weather impact detectors, among which, the energetic particle detectors measure high energy protons and high energy electrons with two probes. Particle flux detection is performed in multiple directions with a number of probes mounted toward different orientation on the three-axis stabilized spacecraft. The space weather impact detectors measure radiation dosage, electrification at the surface and deep inside the spacecraft. Itâs the first time China put space weather impact and space environment detectors on the same geostationary platform. | Operational |
| SEVIRI: Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infra-Red Imager | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Measurements of cloud cover, cloud top height, precipitation, cloud motion, vegetation, radiation fluxes, convection, air mass analysis, cirrus cloud discrimination, tropopause monitoring, stability monitoring, total ozone and sea surface temperature. | Operational |
| SFSI: Solar Full-disk Spectrum Imager | Space environment | SFSI uses the Fe and Hα spectral lines to scan the solar photosphere and chromosphere, respectively. It can obtain the spectral information at any position on the solar surface, thereby accurately calculating the velocity field of photosphere and chromosphere. | Operational |
| SG: Gamma-spectrometer | Space environment | Measurement of the gamma radiation spectrum | Operational |
| SGLI: Second-generation Global Imager | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) and ocean colour instruments | Medium resolution multi-spectral imaging of land, ocean and atmosphere. SGLI-VNR is an optical sensor capable of multi-channel nadir observation at wavelengths from near-UV to NIR and forward or backward polarization observation at red and near infrared wavelengths (Push-broom scanning). SGLI-IRS is an optical sensor capable of multi-channel nadir observation at wavelengths from SWIR to TIR wavelengths (Cross-track scanning). | Operational |
| SIM-2: Solar Irradiance Monitor-2 | Earth radiation budget radiometers | Solar irradiance monitoring. | Operational |
| SIM-3: Solar Irradiance Monitor-3 | Earth radiation budget radiometers | Solar irradiance monitoring. | Operational |
| SIRAL: SAR Interferometer Radar Altimeter | Radar altimeters | Marine ice and terrestrial ice sheet thickness measurement. | Operational |
| SLIM-6-22: Surrey Linear Imager – 6 channel – 22m resolution | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Visible and NIR imagery in support of disaster management – part of the Disaster Management constellation. | Operational |
| SLSTR: Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Marine and land services. | Operational |
| SMAC: Synchronous Monitoring Atmospheric Corrector | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) | Not specified | Operational |
| SMR: Submillimetre Radiometer | Atmospheric chemistry | Measures global distributions of ozone and species of importance for ozone chemistry ClO, HNO3, H2O, N2O, (HO2, H2O2). Measures temperature in the height range 15 – 100 km. | Operational |
| SO: Satellite ozonometer | Space environment | Measurement of intensity of the reflected Sunâs UV radiation | Operational |
| SPAISE2 (AIS): SPace based AIS Experiment 2nd (SPAISE2) | Data collection | Ship identification (name, location, heading, cargo, etc). | Operational |
| SPAISE3 (AIS): SPace based AIS Experiment 3rd (SPAISE3) | Data collection | Ship identification (name, location, heading, cargo, etc). | Operational |
| SPER: Plasma and energetic radiation spectrometer | Space environment | Measurement of differential energy spectra of electrons and protons | Operational |
| SPEXone: Spectro-Polarimeter for Exploration | Multiple direction/polarisation radiometers | Polarimeter for measuring aerosol optical properties, clouds and aerosol types. Multi-angle spectro-polarimetry by spectral modulation technology. Distribution and detailed micro-phyiscal properties of atmospheric aerosol. Direct and indirect aerosol radiative forcing and their impact on climate. A second instance of this instrument is in development. | Operational |
| SRAL: SAR Radar Altimeter | Radar altimeters | Marine and land services. | Operational |
| SSI/ES-3: Special Sensor Ionospheric Plasma Drift/Scintillation Meter | Space environment | Measurement of the ambient electron density and temperatures, the ambient ion density, and ion temperature and molecular weight. | Operational |
| SSIM: Solar Spectral Irradiance Monitor | Earth radiation budget radiometers | Solar spectral irradiance monitoring. | Operational |
| SSJ/5: Special Sensor Precipitating Plasma Monitor | Magnetic field | Measurement of transfer energy, mass, and momentum of charged particles through the magnetosphere-ionosphere in the Earth’s magnetic field. | Operational |
| SSM/IS: Special Sensor Microwave Imager Sounder | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders and imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) | Measures thermal microwave radiation. Global measurements of air temp profile, humidity profile, ocean surface winds, rain overland/ocean, ice concentration/age, ice/snow edge, water vapour/clouds over ocean, snow water content, land surface temperature. | Operational |
| SSM: Special Sensor Magnetometer | Magnetic field | Measures geomagnetic fluctuations associated with solar geophysical phenomena. With SSIES and SSJ provides heating and electron density profiles in the ionosphere. | Operational |
| SSTM-1 (Oceansat-3): Sea Surface Temperature Monitor-1 | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | TIR and OCM combination will support joint analysis for operational potential fishing zones. | Operational |
| SSULI: Special Sensor Ultraviolet Limb Imager | Space environment | Measures vertical profiles of the natural airglow radiation from atoms, molecules and ions in the upper atmosphere and ionosphere. | Operational |
| SSUSI: Special Sensor Ultraviolet Spectrographic Imager | Space environment | Monitors the composition and structure of the upper atmosphere and ionosphere, as well as auroral energetic particle inputs, with spectrographic imaging and photometry. | Operational |
| STR: Star Tracker Set (3) | Precision orbit | Precise attitude determination from the combination of two or three star trackers. | Operational |
| SUVI: Solar Extreme-UltraViolet Imager | Space environment | SUVI uses extreme ultraviolet spectral lines to achieve long-term and continuous observations of the sun, so as to obtain high temporal and high spatial resolution images of the solar corona. | Operational |
| SUVI: Solar Ultraviolet Imager | Other | The SUVI will monitor the entire dynamic range of solar x-ray features, including coronal holes and solar flares, and provides quantitative estimates of the physical conditions in the Sunâs atmosphere. | Operational |
| SWIM: Surface Waves Investigation and Monitoring | Scatterometers | Ku-band Real-aperture radar (RAR) system, multi-incindence beams(0-10°) and azimuth scanning. Measurement of 2D ocean waves spectrum | Operational |
| SXI: Solar X-ray Imager | Space environment | Obtains data on structure of solar corona. Full disk imagery also provides warnings of geomagnetic storms, solar flares, and information on active regions of sun and filaments. | Operational |
| SXUS: Solar X-EUV Irradiance Sensor | Space environment | The Solar X-EUV Irradiance Sensor (SXUS) on FY-4C acquires high-temporal-resolution solar X-ray flux data through long-term and continuous observation of the Sun, providing reference for more accurate space weather forecast. | Operational |
| Scatterometer (Oceansat-3) | Scatterometers | Ocean surface wind measurements, continuity to ocean vector wind | Operational |
| Severyanin-M | Imaging microwave radars | Land and sea surface monitoring | Operational |
| Sounder | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders | Atmospheric soundings and data on atmospheric stability and thermal gradient winds. | Operational |
| Sounder (INSAT): IR Sounder | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders | Atmospheric soundings, atmospheric stability, thermal gradient winds. | Operational |
| Spectrometer (OCO-2) | Atmospheric chemistry | Global measurements of atmospheric CO2 and SIF needed to describe the variability of CO2 sources and sinks. | Operational |
| Spectrometer (OCO-3) | Atmospheric chemistry | Global measurements of atmospheric CO2 and SIF needed to describe the variability of CO2 sources and sinks. | Operational |
| Spectrometer (TEMPO) | Atmospheric chemistry | Hourly measurements of air pollution over North America, from Mexico City to the Canadian oil sands, at high spatial resolution. Measurements in ultraviolet and visible wavelengths provides a suite of products including the key elements of tropospheric air pollution chemistry. Will be part of the first global geostationary constellation for pollution monitoring, along with European and Korean missions now in development. | Operational |
| TANSO-3: Total Anthropogenic and Natural emissions mapping SpectrOmeter-3 | Atmospheric chemistry | Global and regional concentration mapping of CO2, CH4, and NO2 for global monitoring of GHG concentrations, verification of emission inventories, and detection of emissions from large sources. | Operational |
| TANSO-CAI-2: Thermal And Near infrared Sensor for carbon Observation – Cloud and Aerosol Imager-2 | Not specified | Detection and correction of cloud and aerosol for TANSO-FTS, aerosol characteristics | Operational |
| TANSO-CAI: Thermal And Near infrared Sensor for carbon Observation – Cloud and Aerosol Imager | Not specified | Detection and correction of cloud and aerosol for TANSO-FTS. | Operational |
| TANSO-FTS-2: Thermal And Near infrared Sensor for carbon Observation – Fourier Transform Spectrometer-2 | Atmospheric chemistry | CO2, CH4, and CO distribution. | Operational |
| TANSO-FTS: Thermal And Near infrared Sensor for carbon Observation – Fourier Transform Spectrometer | Atmospheric chemistry | CO2 and CH4 distribution. | Operational |
| TEMPEST: Temporal Experiment for Storms and Tropical Systems | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) | Hosted on the ISS, TEMPEST measures atmospheric humidity | Operational |
| TGRS: Tri-GNSS Radio-occultation System | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders | TGRS is the radio occultation receiver, which will receive signals from GPS, Galileo, and Glonass. | Operational |
| TIRS (PREFIRE): Thermal Infrared Spectrometer | Hyperspectral imagers | Pushbroom spectroradiometric imagers in highly inclined orbits to provide spectral fluxes, column-water vapor, surface emissivity and broadband radiances over majority of thermal wavelengths. | Operational |
| TIRS-2: Thermal Infrared Sensor 2 | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Measures longwave thermal infrared surface emittance, land cover state, and change. Used as multipurpose imagery for land applications. TIRS-2 will adhere to the Landsat 8 TIRS instrument performance specifications but will be built to NASA Class-B instrument standards (including a 5-year design life). | Operational |
| TIRS: Thermal Infrared Sensor | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Measures longwave thermal infrared surface emittance, land cover state, and change. Used as multipurpose imagery for land applications. | Operational |
| TOP (MS): THEOS Optical Payload (MS) | High resolution optical imagers | THEOS Optical Payload – MS (15m GSD, 90km Swath) is a refractive instrument employing a line scanning tehchnique. Data is used for various applications including cartography, land use planning and management, national security, etc. | Operational |
| TOP (PAN): THEOS Optical Payload (PAN) | High resolution optical imagers | THEOS Optical Payload – PAN (2m GSD, 22km Swath) is a cassegrain type opto-mechanical instrument employing a line scanning technique. Data is used for various applications including cartography, land use planning and management, national security, etc. | Operational |
| TOR: Tracking, Occultation and Ranging | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders | Consists of the dual-frequency GPS receiver IGOR (Integrated GPS Occultation Receiver) for evaluation of GPS-based orbit data as an independent tracking technique | Operational |
| TROPOMI | Atmospheric chemistry | Supporting atmospheric composition and air quality monitoring services. | Operational |
| TSIS-1/SIM: Total Solar and Spectral Irradiance Sensor 1 – Spectral Irradiance Monitor | Earth radiation budget radiometers | Measures solar spectral irradiance in the 0.2 – 2 µm range. | Operational |
| TSIS-1/TIM: Total Solar and Spectral Irradiance Sensor 1 – Total Irradiance Monitor | Earth radiation budget radiometers | Measurement of total solar irradiance directly traceable to SI units with an absolute accuracy of 0.035% and relative accuracy of 0.002% per year. | Operational |
| Tri-IPM: Triple-angle Ionospheric PhotoMeter | Space environment | UV spectrometry of the ionosphere performed under 3 different viewing angles. Observation of the night-sky oxygen airglow intensity for the retrieval of ionospheric total electrons and NmF2 (sensitivity =150 counts.s-1.R-1); and observation of the bright-day oxygen air glow intensity and the nitrogen air glow intensity of LBH (sensitivity=1 counts.s-1.R-1) for the retrieval of oxygen-nitrogen ratio at the ionospheric altitude. Three units which point in different directions | Operational |
| VDES: VHF Data Exchange System Test Mission | Communications | VHF data exchange system enabling bidirectional communications at higher data rates than AIS. | Operational |
| VFM: Vector Field Magnetometer | Magnetic field | Magnetic field vector measurements. | Operational |
| VIIRS: Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) and ocean colour instruments | Global observations of land, ocean, and atmosphere parameters: cloud/weather imagery, sea-surface temperature, ocean colour, land surface vegetation indices. | Operational |
| VISSR-2: Stretched Visible and Infrared Spin Scan Radiometer-2 | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Multispectral Visible and Infra-red Scan Radiometer. | Operational |
| VNIR (GF-4): Visible and Near-Infrared Camera | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Infrared measurements for environmental and natural disaster monitoring. | Operational |
| VNREDSat-1 MS: VNREDSat-1 Multispectral | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | The VNREDSat 1 multispectral instrument is designed for land cover measurements and applications. | Operational |
| WAI-2: Wide-field Auroral Imager-2 | Space environment | The aurora intensity and form reflect the geomagnetic activity, dynamic feature of high-energy particles in the polar region, and coupling of solar wind with ionosphere. | Operational |
| WAI: Wide-field Auroral Imager | Space environment | The aurora intensity and form reflect the geomagnetic activity, dynamic feature of high-energy particles in the polar region, and coupling of solar wind with ionosphere. | Operational |
| WFI (Amazonia-1): Wide Field Imager (Amazonia-1) | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Used for fire extent detection measurement, coastal and vegetation monitoring, land cover and land use mapping. WFI (Amazonia-1) is the same instrument as WFI (CBERS), however due to differences in orbital altitude, they have different spatial resolution | Operational |
| WFI (CBERS-4): Wide Field Imager (CBERS) | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Earth resources, environmental monitoring, land use. WFI (Amazonia-1) is the same instrument as WFI (CBERS), however due to differences in orbital altitude, they have different spatial resolutions. | Operational |
| WFI (CBERS-4A): Wide Field Imager | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Agriculture; Forestry; Geology; Natural disaster management; Cartography; Environment monitoring; Fire detection, localization and counting; Hydrology, coastal water mapping; Land use; Surveillance and law enforcement | Operational |
| WFV: Wide Field View | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Earth resources, environmental monitoring, land use. | Operational |
| WPM: Wide Swath Panchromatic and Multispectral Camera | High resolution optical imagers | Agriculture; Forestry; Geology; Natural disaster management; Cartography; Environment monitoring; Fire detection, localization and counting; Hydrology, coastal water mapping; Land use; Surveillance and law enforcement | Operational |
| WSAR | Imaging microwave radars | High resolution radar measurements of land and ocean features. | Operational |
| WVC-2: Wide View CCD camera – 2 | High resolution optical imagers | Multispectral measurements of Earth’s surface for natural enviroment and disaster applications. | Operational |
| WindRAD: Wind Radar | Scatterometers | Measures sea-surface wind vector. | Operational |
| X-Band SAR: X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar | Imaging microwave radars | High resolution images for monitoring of land surface and coastal processes and for agricultural, geological and hydrological applications. | Operational |
| XEUVI: Solar X-EUV Imager | Space environment | XEUVI uses X-rays and extreme ultraviolet spectral lines to achieve long-term and continuous observations of the sun, so as to obtain high temporal and high spatial resolution images of the solar corona. | Operational |
| m-NLP: multi-Needle Langmuir Probe | Space environment | m-NLP measures the plasma around the Earth at a higher resolution than other Langmuir probe instruments that have been flown in space. | Operational |
Approved Earth Observation Sensors
Approved sensors are programmatically committed but not listed as operational in the supplied export. Their presence matters because approval often reflects agency recognition that a measurement record needs continuity, higher resolution, broader coverage, or a new observing method. Approved instruments include atmospheric sounders, microwave imagers, SAR payloads, ocean color instruments, hyperspectral instruments, and space-environment monitors. Many connect directly to long-cycle public needs such as weather forecasting, climate services, disaster monitoring, and environmental regulation.
This group also helps users distinguish between near-term capacity and longer-term concepts. An approved payload has moved beyond the proposal category, but users should still avoid treating it as a current data source. For service builders, approved sensors can guide product planning, data-assimilation preparation, ground-system investments, and customer education. For public agencies, approval status can identify where future measurement continuity is likely, which matters when designing national services around open data or sovereign sensing capacity. New Space Economy’s discussion of open data imagery shows how public availability affects downstream use after missions reach service.
Approved Sensor Reference
The table below lists approved instruments from the supplied CEOS MIM export, with each entry organized by instrument, type, applications, and status.
| Instrument | Type | Applications | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| AMR-CR: Advanced Microwave Radiometer for Climate | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) | Capabilities of the AMR with the addition of an on-board calibrator for high stability wet-tropospheric path delay correction and a redesign with respect to AMR-C (i.e. the 3 high res MW radiometer channels at 90, 130 and 166 GHz are an integral subsystem of the instrument and not experimental as in AMR-C) | Approved |
| Avrora-T: Opto-electronic equipment | High resolution optical imagers | Multispectral and panchromatic images of land & sea surfaces and ice cover. | Approved |
| CAR: High Resolution Camera | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Panchromatic and multispectral (Vis/IR) measurements with high spatial resolution, with stereo capability for DEM generation. Applications in emergencies in general, agriculture, land use/land cover, change detection, urban environment, cartography, topography. | Approved |
| CLIM: 3-band CLoud Imager | Atmospheric chemistry | 3-band cloud pushbroom imager for detecting low and high clouds in the spatial sample of CO2I allowing to remove these data from the retrieval process. | Approved |
| CO2I: Integrated CO2 & NO2 Imaging spectrometer | Atmospheric chemistry | Pushbroom scanning spectrometer to provide relatively high spatial resolution CO2, CH4 and NO2 observations in support of estimating anthropogenic emissions of CO2 and CH4 in Copernicus. In addition, high quality NO2 and solar-induced fluorescence will be operationally delivered. | Approved |
| FLORIS: Fluorescence Imaging Spectrometer | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Mapping vegetation fluorescence to quantify photosynthetic activity. | Approved |
| Fourier Transform Spectrometer | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Measure across Earthâs entire far-infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum | Approved |
| GHMI: Geostationary HiMawari Imager | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Not specified | Approved |
| GHMS: Geostationary HiMawari Sounder | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders | Not specified | Approved |
| HSI: HyperSpectral Instrument | Hyperspectral imagers | Pushbroom-type grating Imaging Spectrometer with high Signal-to-noise Ratio and data uniformity to derive quantitative surface characteristics supporting the monitoring, implementation and improvement of a range of policies in the domain of raw materials, agriculture, soils, food security, biodiversity, environmental degradation and hazards, inland and coastal waters, snow, forestry and the urban environment | Approved |
| High Resolution Optical Sensor (CAS500-2) | High resolution optical imagers | Cartography, land use and planning | Approved |
| IPDA LIDAR: Integrated Path Differential Absorption Light Detection and Ranging Instrument | Atmospheric chemistry | ‘Active’ optical remote sensing instrument for atmospheric parameters or trace gases. Global information on atmospheric Methane concentration (Methane column density measurements). | Approved |
| IRIS: Interferometric Radar Altimeter for Ice and Snow | Radar altimeters | Ku-band Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar Altimeter (with added Ka-band channel for snow depth retrieval and in combination with AMR-CR MW Radiometer for ice&snow classification and wet troposphere correction) to cover the needs for continuous monitoring of sea ice thickness and land ice elevation measurement after Cryosat-2, with enhanced performance. | Approved |
| Imaging Microwave Radiometer | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) | A conical scanning total power radiometer operating in 5 bands (L/C/X/K/Ka) to provide high-spatial resolution microwave imaging radiometry measurements and derived products with continuous global coverage and sub-daily revisit in the polar regions and adjacent seas. | Approved |
| Kasatka-R | Imaging microwave radars | Disaster monitoring, sea surface monitoring, information support of environmental managment | Approved |
| L-Band SAR: L-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar | Imaging microwave radars | L-band SAR instrument offering full polarimetry, high spatial resolution, high sensitivity, low ambiguity ratios and capability for repeat-pass & single-pass cross-track interferometry to measure surface deformation of vegetated terrain, soil moisture, land cover classification, crop type discrimination and its temporal analysis. Furthermore, it will monitor Polar ice sheets and ice caps, and the sea-ice conditions (i.e. type, drift, deformation, concentration, lead fraction), as well as contribute to the European maritime situational awareness. | Approved |
| L-band SAR (NISAR): L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) (NISAR) | Imaging microwave radars | 3-year mission to study solid earth deformation (earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides), changes in ice (glaciers, sea ice) and changes in vegetation biomass | Approved |
| LTI: Laser Tracking Instrument | Gravity instruments | The aim of MAGIC is to obtain high-resolution measurements in space and time and include the capability to determine the variations in gravity field due to mass change in hydrology, cryosphere, oceanography, solid Earth and climate change signals so as to serve science and operational products including emergency services. | Approved |
| Land Surface Temperature Radiometer | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | VNIR/SWIR/TIR radiometer with three independent focal planes fed by a single telescope to acquire images of all land and coastal areas with high radiometric accuracy and spatial resolution. Acquistion are during day and night in TIR bands and during day in VNIR/SWIR bands. Monitoring evapotranspiration (ET) rate at European field scale by capturing the variability of Land Surface Temperature (LST) (and hence ET) enabling more robust estimates of field-scale water productivity. Supporting a range of additional services benefitting from TIR observations (e.g. soil composition, coastal zone management, High-Temperature Events (HTE), urban heat islands). | Approved |
| MAP: Multi-Angular Multi-band Polarimeter | Atmospheric chemistry | Multi-angle polarimeter for supporting the CO2 and CH4 retrieval allowing to accurately estimate the effective light path effects of aerosol. Relatively high spatial resolution and accurate aerosol information will be operationally delivered. | Approved |
| MATHS (Oceansat-3A): Millimetre Wave Atmospheric Temperature & Humidity Sounder | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders | Measurement of profiles of atmospheric temperature & humidity | Approved |
| MSI (Atlantic Constellation PF): Multi-spectral imager (Atlantic Constellation Pathfinder) | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Multi-purpose optical imagery. Demonstrate the key technologies asociated with the project such as enhanced AI processesing and inter satellite links allowing tasking even when not above a ground station. | Approved |
| Multiview Thermal-Infared | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Observations of motion occurring at or near Earthâs surface. | Approved |
| NIR-SWIR: Multi-spectral Optical Camera – Near & Short Wave Infrared | Ocean colour instruments | Ocean Colour – Open ocean, coastal & in-land waters. Atmospheric corrections | Approved |
| OEK VR: Multispectral optoelectronic high resolution module | High resolution optical imagers | Multispectral images of land surfaces and Oceans. | Approved |
| Passive Synthetic Aperture Radar | Imaging microwave radars | High-resolution observations of motion occurring at or near Earthâs surface. Record radio waves originating from the accompanying Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite as they bounce back from the Earthâs surface, allowing scientists to measure small shifts in the shape of the land surface, such as those related to earthquakes and volcanic activity, as well as of land ice and sea ice. | Approved |
| RMS: Radiation Monitors for Space Weather | Space environment | Space Environment Monitoring of high enegy electrons and protons, and very high energy protons | Approved |
| VIS-NIR: Multi-spectral Optical Camera – Visible & Near Infrared | Ocean colour instruments | Ocean Colour – Open ocean, coastal & in-land waters. | Approved |
Earth Observation Sensors Being Developed
The being-developed category is the clearest signal of near-future change in the export. These instruments span atmospheric chemistry, weather imaging, microwave sounding, hyperspectral sensing, radar imaging, particle monitoring, and gravity measurement. This group contains payloads intended to refresh established services as well as payloads that can extend what users can detect, measure, and commercialize. Development status should not be treated as operational availability, but it does show where public agencies and mission partners are spending engineering effort.
Hyperspectral instruments deserve separate attention because they collect many narrow spectral bands that can identify materials through spectral patterns. New Space Economy’s directory of hyperspectral satellite operators shows how this capability has moved from research-heavy missions into commercial offerings for agriculture, mining, energy, environment, and government users. Radar instruments in development point to another direction of demand: reliable imaging through cloud, smoke, haze, and darkness. These capabilities support infrastructure monitoring, flood mapping, border awareness, ice services, and change detection.
Being Developed Sensor Reference
The table below lists being developed instruments from the supplied CEOS MIM export, with each entry organized by instrument, type, applications, and status.
| Instrument | Type | Applications | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3MI: Multi-Viewing Multi-Channel Multi-Polarisation Imaging | Atmospheric chemistry | Measure aerosol parameters, air quality index, surface albedo, cloud information | Being Developed |
| ABI-5: Advanced Baseline Imager – 5 | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Detects clouds, cloud properties, water vapour, land and sea surface temperatures, dust, aerosols, volcanic ash, fires, total ozone, snow and ice cover, vegetation index. | Being Developed |
| AEISS-HR-A: Advanced Electronic Image Scanning System-High Resolution-A | High resolution optical imagers | High resolution imager for land applications of cartography and disaster monitoring | Being Developed |
| AEISS-HR: Advanced Electronic Image Scanning System-High Resolution | High resolution optical imagers | High resolution imager for land applications of cartography and disaster monitoring | Being Developed |
| AIRMO Spectrometer | Atmospheric chemistry | Precise and close to real-time data on CH4 and CO2 emissions | Being Developed |
| ALI: Aerosol Limb Imager | High resolution optical imagers | Measures profiles of aerosol extinction and effective radius in the mid-upper troposphere and stratosphere in limb viewing geometry using scattered sunlight in narrow spectral bands in the visible and near infrared. | Being Developed |
| ALISS III: Advanced LISS III | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | For crops and vegetation dynamics, natural resources census, disaster management and large scale mapping of themes. | Being Developed |
| ALTIUS Instrument | Atmospheric chemistry | A high-resolution 2D imager that observes ozone from side-on, at Earth’s limb or atmospheric boundary. This limb-sounding technique allows ozone to be viewed at different altitudes, thereby providing vertical profiles of different ozone concentrations. The instrument uses three independent spectral imagers that operate in the ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared, achieving global coverage in a three-day revisit cycle. | Being Developed |
| APAN: Advanced PAN | High resolution optical imagers | High-resolution images for the study of topography, urban areas, development of DTM, run-off models etc., urban sprawl, forest cover/timber volume, land use change. | Being Developed |
| CLARREO Pathfinder Reflected Solar: CLARREO Pathfinder – RS | Hyperspectral imagers | Demonstration of high accuracy SI-traceable calibration within 350-2300 nm spectral range; demonstration of ability to transfer this calibration to other Earth observing instruments. | Being Developed |
| CSAR: Cryogenic Solar Absolute Radiometer | Earth radiation budget radiometers | Primary Standard for Solar radiation, traceable to SI units, provide very high accuracy (goal 0.03% ARA) TSI (Total Solar Irradiance) measurements | Being Developed |
| CWFMS: Canadian Wildland Fire Monitoring Sensor | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Measurements are: Fire Radiative Power (FRP), hotspot locations, rate of spread, burned area mapping. Data products generated: 1) Fire maps, showing location, extent, and timing of forest fire events; 2) Fire characteristics, such as fire line intensity, rate of spread and fuel consumption; 3) Plume dynamics through smoke transport maps and plume heights; 4) Mass of carbon released into atmosphere. | Being Developed |
| Compact Advanced Payload Wide Swath (CAS500-4) | High resolution optical imagers | Agricultural and forest monitoring | Being Developed |
| DAR: Dynamic Atmospheric Radar | Cloud profile and rain radars | Measures time-differenced profiles of radar reflectivity for convective mass flux | Being Developed |
| DMR: Dynamic Microwave Radiometer | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) | Measures microwave radiances simultaneously with radar reflectivity pofiles for tropical convective storms | Being Developed |
| ENAI: Energetic Neutral Atom Imager | Space environment | The Energetic Neutral Atom Imager (ENAI) is used for imaging observations of neutral atoms (H, O) with energies ranging from 10 to 500 keV in the source region of magnetic storms, achieving high temporal, spatial, and energy resolutions. | Being Developed |
| EnSAC: Environmental Sensor for Atmospheric Composition | Hyperspectral imagers | Monitoring CH4, NO2, CO2 | Being Developed |
| FEI: FORUM Embedded Imager | Other | Provide images in a narrow spectral band centered at 10.5µm. | Being Developed |
| GAS-2: Greenhouse-gases Absorption Spectrometer – 2 | Atmospheric chemistry | Measurement of CO2, CH4, CO, N2O | Being Developed |
| GLIMR Instrument: Geosynchronous Littoral Imaging and Monitoring Radiometer (GLIMR) | Ocean colour instruments | GLIMR will make observations of rapidly evolving phytoplankton dynamics and hazards such as Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) and oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico and other selected coastal regions of North and South America | Being Developed |
| GLM-5: Geostationary Lightning Mapper – 5 | Lightning sensors | Detect total lightning flash rate over near full disk. | Being Developed |
| GXI: GeoXO Imager | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Detects clouds, cloud properties, water vapour, land and sea surface temperatures, dust, aerosols, volcanic ash, fires, total ozone, snow and ice cover, vegetation index. | Being Developed |
| GXS: GeoXO Sounder | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders | Not specified | Being Developed |
| HIS: Hyperspectral imaging Spectrometer | Hyperspectral imagers | Pushbroom-type dual-prism Imaging Spectrometer with high radiometric accuracy and medium Signal-to-noise Ratio, operating from UV (320 nm) to SWIR (2400 nm), based on a single MCT Detector/focal plane. The HIS aims at accurate spectral imaging on land and ocean for climatological background radiometric data acquistion and supporting cross-calibration with other stellites/sensors and on PICS/instrumented sites with highest resolution (50 m) | Being Developed |
| HYC2: HYperspectral Camera 2 | Hyperspectral imagers | Hyperspectral data for complex land ecosystem studies. | Being Developed |
| HyMATHS: Hyperspectral Millimetre Wave Atmospheric Temperature & Humidity Sounder | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders | Measurement of profiles of atmospheric temperature & humidity in 100 Channels | Being Developed |
| IASI-NG: Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer – New Generation | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders | Measures profiles of atmospheric temperature, humidity, ozone, carbon monoxide, columns of methane, nitrous oxide, and other minor gases, and sea, ice, and land surface temperature and emissivity. Provides information on aeorols and cloud: fractional coverage, phase, cloud top height (input to Polar AMVs) and particle size. Prime applications: NWP, AC/AQ, climate. Secondary applications: NWC, land/ocean surface monitoring. IASI-NG will resume IASI role as internationl standard for satellite inter-calibration (GSICS). | Being Developed |
| ICI: Ice Cloud Imager | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) | Measures ice cloud properties (ice water path, mean ice mass height, mean ice particle size by mass), liquid/solid precipitation information, and water vapour profiles | Being Developed |
| IRS: Infra-Red Sounder | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders | Measurements of vertically resolved clear sky atmospheric motion vectors, temperature and water vapour profiles. | Being Developed |
| Imaging radar (NIMBUS-SAR): New Italian Micro Bus Synthetic Aperture Radar | Imaging microwave radars | All-weather images of ocean, land and ice for monitoring of land surface processes, ice, environmental monitoring, risk management, environmental resources, maritime management, Earth topographic mapping. Developed by TAS-I company. | Being Developed |
| Imaging radar (NOX-SAR): NOX Synthetic Aperture Radar | Imaging microwave radars | All-weather images of ocean, land and ice for monitoring of land surface processes, ice, environmental monitoring, risk management, environmental resources, maritime management, Earth topographic mapping. Developed by TAS-I company. | Being Developed |
| JAXA Ku-Band Doppler Radar: Precipitation Measuring Mission | Cloud profile and rain radars | Precipitation profiling and mapping with nadir Doppler information for convective dynamics | Being Developed |
| LISS-V: Linear Imaging Self Scanner-V | High resolution optical imagers | Vegetation monitoring, improved crop discrimination, crop yield, disaster monitoring and rapid assessment of natural resources. | Being Developed |
| LOTUSat-1 SAR | Imaging microwave radars | The LOTUSat-1 SAR instrument is designed for disaster and climate change countermeasure. | Being Developed |
| Libera | Earth radiation budget radiometers | 5-year design mission. The mission focuses on understanding the flow of energy out of the planet and how it changes over time. | Being Developed |
| MAIA: Multi-Angle Imager for Aerosols | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Multispectral Imager for air pollution monitoring | Being Developed |
| MOLI Imager | High resolution optical imagers | Not specified | Being Developed |
| MOLI Lidar | Lidars | Not specified | Being Developed |
| MWI: Microwave Imager | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) | Measure cloud liquid water content, solid/liquid precipitation information, total column water vapour and temperature profiles, sea ice parameters, sea surface temperature, sea surface wind speed. | Being Developed |
| MWS: Microwave Sounder | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders | All-weather night-day temperature sounding | Being Developed |
| Micro-LiDaR: Micro-LiDAR | Lidars | Not specified | Being Developed |
| Microcarb | Atmospheric chemistry | Measurement of CO2 concentration using CO2 absorption bands at 1607nm and 2046nm | Being Developed |
| NAMS: Neutral Atmospheric Mass Spectrometer | Space environment | atmospheric compositions, number density, atmospheric total density. The data applications are for the satellites orbital determination and the atmospheric model study | Being Developed |
| OTTER Instrument on SBG-TIR: Orbiting Terrestrial Thermal Emission Radiometer (OTTER) on SBG-TIR | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Thermal radiometer to provide information on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, hydrology, weather, climate, and solid Earth. | Being Developed |
| Optical Instrument (CO3D) | High resolution optical imagers | Will provide global Digital Surface Models of landmasses between +- 70° latitudes with a resolution of 1 m and in 3D. | Being Developed |
| Optical imager (NIMBUS-VHR): New Italian Micro Bus – Very High Resolution Optical Imager | High resolution optical imagers | High-resolution optical images in PAN, MS and VNIR spectral channels with StripMap, Mosaic and N-Stereo acquisition modes, developed by TAS-I Company | Being Developed |
| Optical imager (PLATINO-Hyper): PLATINO Hyperspectral Optical Imager | High resolution optical imagers | Hyperspectral imager developed by ASI. | Being Developed |
| PLT SAR: PLATiNO SAR | Imaging microwave radars | All-weather images of ocean, land and ice for monitoring of land surface processes, ice, environmental monitoring, risk management, environmental resources, maritime management, Earth topographic mapping. Bistatic mission | Being Developed |
| POLSAC: Polarisation Sensor for Aerosol & Cloud | Multiple direction/polarisation radiometers | Characterisation of aerosols & clouds | Being Developed |
| PolSIR: Polarized Submillimeter Ice-cloud Radiometer | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) | Characterize and understand the diurnal variability of tropical and sub-tropical ice clouds | Being Developed |
| RO | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders | GNSS receiver for atmospheric temperature and humidity profile sounding. | Being Developed |
| S-band SAR (NISAR): S-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) (NISAR) | Imaging microwave radars | 3-year mission to study solid earth deformation (earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides), changes in ice (glaciers, sea ice) and changes in vegetation biomass | Being Developed |
| SACFF: Sensor for advanced Climate and Forest Fire | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | High resolution imaging of forest fire | Being Developed |
| SAPHIR-NG: Sondeur Atmospherique du Profil dâHumidite Intertropicale par Radiometrie_New Generation | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) | Tandem pair of high-frequency passive microwave radiometers for time-differenced measurements of ice water path and vertical ice mass flux | Being Developed |
| SAR (CAS500-5) | Imaging microwave radars | High resolution radar for water resource monitoring | Being Developed |
| SAR (KOMPSAT-6) | Imaging microwave radars | High resolution radar for land applications of cartography and disaster monitoring | Being Developed |
| SBG VSWIR Instrument: Visible and Short-Wave Infrared (VSWIR) Instrument | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Imaging spectrometer to provide information on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, hydrology, weather, climate, and solid Earth. | Being Developed |
| SCA | Scatterometers | Measures wind speed and direction over ocean, soil moisture, sea ice cover, sea ice type, snow cover and snow parameters and vegetation parameters | Being Developed |
| SGR-ReSI-Z: Space GNSS Receiver – Remote Sensing Instrument (Zynq based) | Other | Ocean winds, waves, soil moisture, flooding, freeze / thaw state over permafrost, biomass, ice, snow | Being Developed |
| SHOW: Spatial Heterodyne Observations of Water | High resolution optical imagers | Measures profiles of water vapour concentration in the upper troposphere and stratosphere in limb viewing geometry using scattered sunlight in the near-infrared. | Being Developed |
| SWIR: Short Wave Infra Red | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Monitoring vegetation, water resoruce | Being Developed |
| TICFIRE: Thin Ice Clouds in Far Infrared (IR) Experiment | Earth radiation budget radiometers | Characterization of ice cloud properties including particle size, cloud optical depth and top height, and outgoing longwave radiation | Being Developed |
| TIR: Thermal Infra Red | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | 1) Ecosystem stress and water use (i.e. monitoring of energy and water budgets of the continental biosphere);2) Urban (i.e. climatology and monitoring of fluxes of urban surfaces); 3) Sea Surface Temperature on approximately 200km coastal band. | Being Developed |
| TSIS-2/SIM: Total Solar and Spectral Irradiance Sensor 2 – Spectral Irradiance Monitor | Earth radiation budget radiometers | Measures spectral solar irradiance over three bands ranging from 200 to 2400 nm. | Being Developed |
| TSIS-2/TIM: Total Solar and Spectral Irradiance Sensor 2 – Total Irradiance Monitor | Earth radiation budget radiometers | Measures total solar irradiance over the full spectrum. | Being Developed |
| UVN (Sentinel-4): UV-visible- near infrared imaging spectrometer (Sentinel-4) | Atmospheric chemistry | Supporting atmospheric composition and air quality monitoring services. | Being Developed |
| UVNS (Sentinel-5): Ultra-violet Visible Near-infrared Shortwave-infrared spectrometer | Atmospheric chemistry | Supporting atmospheric composition and air quality monitoring services. Measurements of atmospheric trace gases, primarily O3, NO2, SO2, HCHO, CH4, CO, CHOCHO as well as Aerosols and UV Index. | Being Developed |
| VIREO on SBG-TIR: Visible and Near-Infrared Camera on SBG-TIR | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Observations will be used for geolocation and to produce retrieved estimates of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). | Being Developed |
| VNIR: Visible and Near Infra Red | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Monitoring vegetation, water resoruce | Being Developed |
Proposed Earth Observation Sensors
Proposed sensors show candidate measurement capacity rather than confirmed operational data streams. This distinction is important for investors, service builders, and public users because proposed instruments can identify demand but cannot yet support a guaranteed product roadmap. The proposed group in the supplied export includes cloud and rain radars, lidars, hyperspectral payloads, atmospheric chemistry instruments, microwave imagers, altimeters, space-environment instruments, and radiation budget sensors. The mix points to continued interest in climate, weather, atmospheric composition, water, ice, vegetation, oceans, and near-Earth space conditions.
A proposed sensor can still influence the market before it flies. Mission concepts shape research agendas, procurement planning, user requirements, standards discussions, and commercial positioning. For example, demand for better methane detection, ground deformation monitoring, maritime awareness, and climate continuity affects the commercial data marketplace even before every proposed payload becomes an approved mission. New Space Economy’s directory of data marketplace companies explains how buyers compare providers by sensor type, archive depth, tasking model, application programming interface access, and licensing terms.
Proposed Sensor Reference
The table below lists proposed instruments from the supplied CEOS MIM export, with each entry organized by instrument, type, applications, and status.
| Instrument | Type | Applications | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| ALADIN-2: Atmospheric Laser Doppler Instrument – 2 | Lidars | Global wind profiles (single line-of-sight) for an improved weather prediction. | Proposed |
| AMSI: Advanced Multi-Spectral Instrument | High resolution optical imagers | Optical high spatial resolution imagery over land and coastal areas for Copernicus operational services. | Proposed |
| AOLCI: Advanced Ocean and Land Colour Imager | Not specified | Visible and near-infrared hyperspectral radiometer supporting a wide range of Marine, Land, Atmosphere and Climate Services. Provides enhanced continutity of ocean colour and land colour measurements from OLCI and enhanced synergy with ASLSTR | Proposed |
| AOS-Sky Lidar: Atmosphere Observing System-Sky lidar | Lidars | Atmospheric lidar for profiling of aerosols and thin ice clouds | Proposed |
| AOS-Sky Microwave Radiometer: Atmosphere Observing System-Sky Microwave Radiometer | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) | High-frequency passive microwave radiometers for measurement of ice cloud properties, including ice water path. | Proposed |
| AOS-Sky Polarimeter: Atmosphere Observing System-Sky Polarimeter | Multiple direction/polarisation radiometers | Measurement of aerosol optical depth, aerosol absorption optical depth, and aerosols fine-mode effective radius, along with cloud bow techniques for characterization of cloud-top proerties | Proposed |
| AOS-Sky Radar: Atmosphere Observing System-Sky Radar | Cloud profile and rain radars | Cloud profiling Doppler radar for characterizing precipitating cloud strudtures and related vertical air motions | Proposed |
| ASLSTR: Advanced Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer | Not specified | Dual-view conical scanner with channels in the VIS, NIR SWIR TIR, supporting a wide range of Marine, Land, Atmosphere and Climate Services. Provides enhanced continutity of SST and LST measurements from SLSTR and enhanced synergy with AOLCI | Proposed |
| ATCOR: Atmospheric correction | High resolution optical imagers | Atmospheric correction. | Proposed |
| Advanced DCS: Advanced Data Collection System | Data collection | Collects data on temperature (air/water), atmospheric pressure, humidity and wind speed/direction, speed and direction of ocean and river currents. | Proposed |
| Advanced GGAK-M: Advanced Module for Geophysical Measurements (SEM) | Space environment and magnetic field | Space Environmental Monitoring (SEM). | Proposed |
| Advanced MSU-MR: Advanced Multispectral scanning imager-radiometer | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Parameters of clouds, snow, ice and land cover, vegetation, surface temperature, fire detection. | Proposed |
| Advanced Radiomet: Advanced Radio-occultation receiver | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders | Atmospheric temperature and humidity profiles with high vertical resolution. | Proposed |
| Advanced Scatterometer | Scatterometers | Ocean surface wind measurements. | Proposed |
| BIK-SD 1: High resolution wide capture multispectral infraredoptical sensor | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Provides a simultaneous taking of images of an object in several spectral bands of thermal range with detection and registration of land-based, subsurface-based and space-based objects. | Proposed |
| COSIS | Atmospheric chemistry | Independent verification of reported emissions as a cornerstone toward emission accounting and reduction measures such as agreed on in the Paris climate agreement. In 2018, coal-fired power plants accounted for 30% of the global man-made carbon dioxide emissions. | Proposed |
| DCS (SABIA_MAR): Data Collection System | Data collection | Environmental and meteorological data collection from ground platforms (UHF 401.62 MHz uplink / S-band downlink). | Proposed |
| HSC: High Sensitivity Camera | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Low light detection applications | Proposed |
| IKFS-3: Advanced Fourier spectrometer | Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders | Atmospheric temperature/humidity profiles, data on cloud parameters, water vapour & ozone column amounts, surface temperature. | Proposed |
| L-Band SAR: L-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar | Imaging microwave radars | Global observation of dynamic processes in the bio-, cryo-, geo- and hydrosphere. | Proposed |
| LandIS: Landsat Next Instrument Suite | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) | Measures surface radiance, land cover state and change (e.g., vegetation type), and longwave termal infrared surface emittance. Used as multi-purpose imagery for land applications. | Proposed |
| MTVZA-GY-MP: Advanced Scanning microwave imager-sounder | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) | Atmospheric temperature and humidity profiles, precipitation, sea-level wind speed, snow/ice coverage. | Proposed |
| Magnetometer: Magnetometer (heliospheric magnetic field) | Magnetic field | Not specified | Proposed |
| NG C-Band SAR: Next Generation C-Band SAR | Imaging microwave radars | Marine core services, land monitoring and emergency services. Monitoring sea ice zones and arctic environment. Surveillance of marine environment, monitoring land surface motion risks, mapping of land surfaces (forest, water and soil, agriculture), mapping in support of humanitarian aid in crisis situations. | Proposed |
| Poseidon-5 Altimeter: Poseidon-5 SAR Radar Altimeter | Radar altimeters | Nadir viewing sounding radar for provision of real-time high-precision sea surface topography, ocean circulation and wave height data. | Proposed |
| SAOOH: Swath Altimeter for Oceanography and Operational Hydrology | Radar altimeters | Interferometric swath altimeter building on the heritage of the SWOT mission. It will enhance sampling coverage and performance of hydrology water surface elevation measurements. | Proposed |
| STIS: Supra Thermal Ion Sensor | Space environment | Not specified | Proposed |
| SWiPS: Solar Wind Plasma Sensor | Space environment | Not specified | Proposed |
| SwSCOR: Coronagraph | Not specified | Measurements of the solar atmosphere (corona) providing the earliest possible notice of impending geomagnetic activity. | Proposed |
| TGSP: Trace Gas Spectrometer | Atmospheric chemistry | Trace gas measurements. | Proposed |
| X-Band SAR: TerraSAR-FOX | Imaging microwave radars | SAR images for monitoring of land surface and coastal processes. | Proposed |
| X-ray Irradiance Sensor: XRIS | Not specified | Monitors the whole-Sun X-ray irradiance in two bands | Proposed |
| XFM: X-ray Flux Monitor | Not specified | Monitors the whole-Sun X-ray irradiance | Proposed |
What Sensor Types Reveal About Demand
The largest type group in the supplied export is imaging multi-spectral radiometers in visible and infrared bands. That result fits the long-standing demand for weather, land, ocean, cloud, snow, ice, fire, and vegetation products. Multi-spectral radiometers can support global coverage, frequent revisit, and established product lines. They also feed data-assimilation systems, public web services, agricultural products, and environmental monitoring programs. Their economic value often comes from continuity and scale rather than individual scene price.
High-resolution optical imagers form another large group. These payloads serve mapping, urban monitoring, defense and security, disaster response, agriculture, mining, insurance, and infrastructure intelligence. Optical images remain easy for users to interpret, and that keeps demand strong. Their limits are equally familiar: clouds, smoke, haze, darkness, sun angle, and revisit constraints. Those limits explain why radar, thermal, hyperspectral, and radio-frequency monitoring services often sit beside optical imagery in operational workflows. New Space Economy’s guide to satellite sensors describes how passive and active sensing methods answer different questions.
Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders, atmospheric chemistry instruments, radiation budget radiometers, and passive microwave sensors reflect a different demand pattern. Their users often sit inside meteorological agencies, climate programs, environmental agencies, universities, and data-assimilation centers. These instruments can be less visible to retail data buyers, but they are central to weather forecasts, climate records, air quality, greenhouse gas monitoring, cloud physics, and water-cycle science. The World Meteorological Organization’s OSCAR system provides a complementary way to compare observing capabilities and requirements for weather, water, climate, and related services.
Radar instruments appear in multiple forms: SAR, radar altimeters, scatterometers, cloud profile radars, and rain radars. SAR supports all-weather imaging and ground-motion analysis. Altimeters measure sea-surface height, ice elevation, inland water level, and wave fields. Scatterometers estimate ocean-surface winds, soil moisture, vegetation, and ice information. Cloud and precipitation radars add vertical structure to storm, cloud, and precipitation analysis. The commercial interest in radar imagery, discussed in New Space Economy coverage of infrastructure monitoring, reflects the value of measurements that keep working when optical imagery is blocked.
How Applications Move From Measurement to Services
The supplied export lists applications at the instrument level, but the economic value appears after measurement, calibration, processing, validation, distribution, and interpretation. A radiometer may measure brightness temperature, but a user may buy a drought product, fire alert, or sea-surface temperature service. A radar altimeter may measure range to the sea surface, but shipping, insurance, flood planning, and climate services may consume derived water-level information. This separation between instrument and product explains why the same sensor can support science, public safety, regulation, and commercial analytics.
Applications fall into several demand clusters. Weather and climate users depend on imagers, sounders, microwave radiometers, radiation budget instruments, and atmospheric chemistry sensors. Land and infrastructure users depend on optical, SAR, hyperspectral, thermal, and lidar data. Ocean users rely on altimeters, scatterometers, ocean color instruments, passive microwave sensors, and SAR. Cryosphere users need SAR, altimetry, microwave radiometry, optical imagery, and temperature records. Space-environment users depend on particle monitors, magnetometers, ultraviolet sensors, and plasma packages. These clusters do not replace individual sensor descriptions, but they explain why the status inventory matters to users who buy or build services.
Public-sector demand remains central. Weather agencies, civil protection organizations, defense departments, climate programs, maritime authorities, agricultural agencies, and environmental regulators all need dependable measurements. Commercial buyers often prefer finished insight rather than raw data, which shifts value toward analytics, platforms, and vertical products. New Space Economy’s article on space-enabled applications places EO beside communications, positioning, timing, and other services that turn space systems into everyday economic infrastructure.
Data Access, User Burden, and Market Translation
The export includes a data-access field, and many entries use open access. Open data lowers entry barriers for research teams, public agencies, start-ups, schools, and application developers. It does not eliminate the cost of using data. Users still need discovery tools, cloud access, calibration knowledge, geospatial processing skills, product documentation, validation methods, and domain expertise. That practical burden explains why Earth observation services often sell convenience, confidence, and workflow integration rather than raw pixels alone.
Sensor status affects that burden. Operational instruments can be tested against existing archives and current products. Approved and being-developed instruments require preparation but not operational dependence. Proposed instruments should inform horizon scanning, research priorities, and market awareness without being treated as bankable supply. This distinction protects public agencies from designing services around uncertain data streams and protects commercial firms from making unsupported customer promises. The European Space Agency’s Earth observation guide identifies CEOS resources among useful entry points for users trying to understand available data sources.
The global market also depends on trust. Buyers need to know whether a sensor is active, whether data are accessible, whether licensing permits the intended use, whether revisit and latency match the task, and whether the measurement can stand up to audit. Those issues matter in agriculture, energy, insurance, maritime compliance, environmental reporting, public safety, and security use cases. The sensor inventory gives the supply-side starting point. The business case begins when a provider turns the measurement into a repeatable decision product.
Summary
The supplied CEOS MIM export presents 456 earth observation sensors as a working inventory of global measurement capacity. The operational group is much larger than the approved, being-developed, and proposed groups, but future categories show active demand for atmospheric chemistry, microwave sounding, radar, hyperspectral imaging, weather imaging, space-environment monitoring, and climate continuity. The sensor-by-sensor view also shows why EO cannot be reduced to optical imagery. Many of the most valuable data streams come from microwave, radar, lidar, occultation, altimetry, magnetic-field, gravity, and particle instruments.
For users, the main lesson is status discipline. Operational sensors support current products. Approved sensors point to committed future capability. Instruments being developed deserve planning attention but not operational dependence. Proposed instruments belong in horizon scanning rather than procurement assumptions. For the space economy, the lesson is that value often sits between the sensor and the user. Measurement becomes commercial value through calibration, access, analytics, workflow fit, licensing, and user trust.
Appendix: Useful Books Available on Amazon
- Remote Sensing and Image Interpretation
- Introductory Digital Image Processing: A Remote Sensing Perspective
- Fundamentals of Satellite Remote Sensing: An Environmental Approach
- Manual of Remote Sensing, Remote Sensing for the Earth Sciences
- Manual of Remote Sensing, Principles and Applications of Imaging Radar
Appendix: Top Questions Answered in This Article
What Is the Main Source Used for This Sensor Review??
The main source is the supplied CEOS MIM instrument export dated June 14, 2026. It contains 456 instrument rows with instrument name, status, type, technology, applications, wavebands, resolution, data access, and data format fields. The article uses the export as the primary inventory source.
How Many Operational Sensors Are Listed in the Supplied Export??
The supplied export lists 326 operational sensors. That group includes imaging radiometers, high-resolution optical imagers, space-environment instruments, atmospheric sounders, atmospheric chemistry payloads, SAR instruments, passive microwave radiometers, radiation budget radiometers, and supporting data collection instruments.
Why Are Approved Sensors Separate From Operational Sensors??
Approved sensors have cleared a programmatic step but are not listed as operational in the export. They can guide planning, but users should not treat them as current data sources. Operational use begins only when the instrument reaches service and the data stream becomes available.
What Does Being Developed Mean for a Sensor??
Being developed means the instrument is in design, build, testing, integration, or related mission preparation. The status points to future capability but does not guarantee current data availability. Users can monitor these instruments for planning without relying on them for live services.
Why Do Proposed Sensors Matter??
Proposed sensors show where agencies or mission teams see measurement demand. They can influence research priorities, user requirements, and market expectations. A proposed sensor should not be treated as confirmed supply because the mission may change, be delayed, or never reach operational status.
Which Sensor Type Appears Most Often??
Imaging multi-spectral radiometers in visible and infrared bands are the largest type group in the supplied export. Their high count reflects demand for weather, land, ocean, cloud, fire, snow, ice, vegetation, and temperature products with broad coverage and long operating records.
Why Are Radar Instruments Important for Earth Observation??
Radar instruments add measurement capacity that optical imagers cannot provide alone. SAR can image through cloud and darkness, altimeters measure sea and ice height, scatterometers estimate winds and surface properties, and cloud or rain radars reveal vertical storm structure.
How Do Sensor Applications Become Commercial Services??
Instrument measurements become services after calibration, processing, validation, distribution, analytics, and user-specific interpretation. A raw measurement may become a flood map, crop-stress alert, maritime risk product, emissions-monitoring service, or infrastructure movement report.
Why Does Open Data Still Require Expertise??
Open data removes some access costs, but users still need discovery tools, processing systems, documentation, validation methods, and domain knowledge. Many commercial services sell ease of use, workflow integration, and confidence rather than raw data alone.
What Should Buyers Check Before Depending on an EO Sensor??
Buyers should check operational status, access terms, latency, revisit rate, spatial resolution, spectral capability, calibration record, data format, licensing, archive depth, and product validation. Status alone does not prove that a sensor fits a specific business or public-sector workflow.
Appendix: Glossary of Key Terms
CEOS MIM Database
The Missions, Instruments, and Measurements database maintained under the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites framework. It records agency mission, instrument, and measurement information and supports comparison of current and planned Earth observation capacity.
Earth Observation
The collection of data about Earth’s land, oceans, atmosphere, ice, gravity field, magnetic field, and near-Earth environment. Satellite EO uses sensors in orbit, but users often combine satellite data with airborne, ground, and ocean measurements.
Instrument Status
A category that identifies whether a sensor is operational, approved, being developed, or proposed in the supplied export. Status helps users separate current data availability from future capability, candidate missions, and planning assumptions.
Synthetic Aperture Radar
An active radar method that sends microwave pulses toward Earth and measures returned signals. SAR can support imaging through cloud, smoke, haze, and darkness, making it useful for floods, ice, maritime monitoring, ground motion, and security applications.
Hyperspectral Imaging
A sensing method that measures many narrow spectral bands. The added spectral detail can help identify materials, vegetation stress, minerals, water conditions, gases, and surface properties that broad-band optical imagery may miss.
Passive Microwave Radiometer
A sensor that measures naturally emitted microwave energy from Earth and the atmosphere. Passive microwave data support weather, ocean, snow, ice, soil moisture, precipitation, and water-vapor products, often with broad coverage but coarse spatial resolution.
Radar Altimeter
An active instrument that measures the time it takes radar pulses to travel to a surface and back. Altimeters support sea-surface height, inland water, wave height, ice elevation, and climate applications.
Scatterometer
A radar instrument that measures the strength of returned microwave signals from Earth’s surface. Scatterometers support ocean-surface wind products and can also contribute to soil moisture, vegetation, sea ice, and snow applications.
Atmospheric Sounder
An instrument that measures atmospheric temperature, humidity, or gas profiles. Sounders support weather prediction, climate records, air quality monitoring, and analysis of storms, clouds, aerosols, and greenhouse gases.
Data Access
The availability and conditions under which instrument data can be obtained. Open access can support broader use, but users still need processing knowledge, product documentation, licensing clarity, and validation evidence.
