WMO OSCAR | Details for Instrument MISR

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Instrument: MISR

Instrument details

Acronym	MISR
Full name	Multi-angle Imaging Spectro-Radiometer
Purpose	Aerosol properties, cloud properties, cloud/aerosol motion wind vectors, Earth's surface Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF)
Short description	Assembly of 9 cameras at different forward, nadir and aft viewing angles, each camera having 4 spectral VIS/NIR channels, for a total of 36 channels [see detailed characteristics below] For more information, see here
Background	MISR is one of the first multi-angle, multispectral space-based imagers.
Scanning Technique	Along track, the nine cameras have the following viewing angles: nadir, ± 26.1°, ± 45.6°, ± 60.0° and ± 70.5°. Cross-track : pushbroom scanning, each camera has 4 line arrays of 1504 active pixels, one array for each spectral band, swath about 380 km.
Resolution	250 m for the nadir-pointing camera, 275 m for the 8 off-nadir pointing cameras. In Global Observing mode, for the off-nadir cameras, only the red channel is acquired at full resolution, the remaining
Coverage / Cycle	Near-global coverage in one week, in daylight. Global coverage in 9 days.
Mass	148 kg	Power	131 W	Data Rate	3.3 Mbps

Providing Agency	NASA
Instrument Maturity	Flown on an R&D satellite
Utilization Period:	2000 to 2026
Last update:	2024-09-30

Detailed characteristics

Central wavelength	Bandwidth	SNR @ specified input spectral radiance
446.4 nm	41.9 nm	300 @ 179 W m^-2 sr^-1 μm^-1
557.5 nm	28.6 nm	620 @ 177 W m^-2 sr^-1 μm^-1
671.7 nm	21.9 nm	650 @ 146 W m^-2 sr^-1 μm^-1
866.4 nm	39.7 nm	740 @ 93 W m^-2 sr^-1 μm^-1
		Radiometric accuracy: 3% at maximum signal

Satellites this instrument is flying on

Note: a red tag indicates satellites no longer operational, a green tag indicates operational satellites, a blue tag indicates future satellites

Earth Observation System (NASA)
- Terra (see instrument status) Mar 2000 - 2026

Instrument classification

Earth observation instrument
Passive optical radiometer or spectrometer
Moderate resolution optical imager

WIGOS Subcomponents

Subcomponent 2
Multi-angle, multi-polarization radiometers
Multi-angle, multi-polarization radiometer

Mission objectives

Primary mission objectives

Cloud optical depth
Earth surface albedo
Earth surface short-wave bidirectional reflectance
Short-wave cloud reflectance
Wind (horizontal)

Evaluation of Measurements

The following list indicates which measurements can typically be retrieved from this category of instrument. To see a full Gap Analysis by Variable, click on the respective variable.

Note: table can be sorted by clicking on the column headers
Note: * Primary mission objective.

Search:

Variable	Relevance for measuring this variable	Operational limitations	Explanation
Earth surface albedo*	1 - primary	Cloud sensitive.	VIS channels with many viewing angles to account for anisotropic reflectivity
Fraction of Absorbed PAR (FAPAR)	1 - primary	Cloud sensitive.	VIS channels including Red at 700 nm, with more viewing angles
Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR)	1 - primary	Cloud sensitive.	VIS channels, range undersampled; multi-viewing capability for irradiance reconstruction
Aerosol volcanic ash	1 - primary	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	VIS and NIR channels viewing under many different angles
Aerosol volcanic ash Total Column	1 - primary	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	VIS and NIR channels with many different viewing angles
Earth surface short-wave bidirectional reflectance*	2 - very high	Cloud sensitive.	VIS and NIR range with many different viewing angles
Short-wave cloud reflectance*	2 - very high	No specific limitation.	VIS and NIR channels with multi-viewing capability to account for anisotropical reflectance
Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)	3 - high	Cloud sensitive.	VIS and NIR channels
Cloud drop effective radius	4 - fair	At cloud top.. Daylight only.	VIS and NIR channels and different viewing angles (for differentiation).
Cloud ice effective radius	4 - fair	At cloud top.. Daylight only.	VIS and NIR channels with different viewing angles (for differentiation).
Cloud optical depth*	4 - fair	Low-density cloud only.. Daylight only.	VIS and NIR channels with different viewing angles
Leaf Area Index (LAI)	4 - fair	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	VIS and NIR channels. LAI inferred from NDVI
Snow cover	4 - fair	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	VIS and NIR channels
Upward short-wave irradiance at TOA	4 - fair	Spectral interpolation needed.	VIS and NIR channels with multi-viewing capability to account for anisotropical reflectance
Wind (horizontal)*	4 - fair	Cloud or water vapour tracers needed.. Daylight only.	VIS channel(s) viewing under many different angles to infer cloud motion and geometric height estimate
Biomass	5 - marginal	Cloud sensitive.. Index only.. Daylight only.	VIS and NIR channels. Biomass inferred from NDVI
Cloud cover	5 - marginal	Daylight only.	VIS and NIR channels
Cloud type	5 - marginal	Daylight only.	VIS and NIR channels viewing under more angles
Downward short-wave irradiance at Earth surface	5 - marginal	Cloud sensitive.. Highly indirect.	VIS and NIR channels
Fire fractional cover	5 - marginal	Cloud sensitive.. Coarse spatial resolution.. Daylight only.	VIS channels
Sea-ice cover	5 - marginal	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	VIS and NIR (for contour enhancement) channels
Soil moisture at surface	5 - marginal	Cloud sensitive.. Index only.. Daylight only.	VIS and NIR channels. Soil moisture inferred from differential brightness

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