BackForwardInstrument:  MSC 

Instrument details
Acronym MSC
Full name Multi-Spectral Camera
Purpose Very-high-resolution land observation, cartography and disasters monitoring
Short description 5-channels VNIR radiometer, one PAN, four multi-spectral [see detailed characteristics below]
Background Consolidated technology
Scanning Technique Pushbroom. Swath: 15 km addressable within a field of regard of ± 400 km aft- and fore-, and 2300 km cross-track for stereoscopy in-orbit and intra-orbits.
Resolution IFOV at s.s.p.: PAN: 1 m, other channels 4 m
Coverage / Cycle Global coverage in 5 months
Mass 150 kg Power 350 W Data Rate 320 Mbps

 

Providing Agency KARI
Instrument Maturity Flown on an R&D satellite
Utilization Period: 2006 to 2024
Last update: 2021-06-16
Detailed characteristics
Central wavelength Spectral interval SNR @ specified input spectral radiance
485 nm 450 - 520 nm 100 @ 79.46. W m-2 sr-1 µm-1
560 nm 520 - 600 nm 100 @ 89.92 W m-2 sr-1 µm-1
660 nm 630 - 690 nm 100 @ 98.48 W m-2 sr-1 µm-1
830 nm 760 - 900 nm 100 @ 104.15 W m-2 sr-1 µm-1
N/A  (PAN) 500 - 900 nm 100 @ 86.88 W m-2 sr-1 µm-1
Satellites this instrument is flying on

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

Instrument classification
  • Earth observation instrument
  • Passive optical radiometer or spectrometer
  • High resolution optical imager
WIGOS Subcomponents
  • Subcomponent 1
  • High-resolution multi-spectral VIS/IR imagers
  • High-resolution multi-spectral VIS/IR imager
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • Biomass
  • Fraction of Absorbed PAR (FAPAR)
  • Fraction of vegetated land
  • Land cover
  • Leaf Area Index (LAI)
  • Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)
  • Vegetation type
Evaluation of Measurements

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

Note: table can be sorted by clicking on the column headers
Note: * Primary mission objective.
VariableRelevance for measuring this variableOperational limitationsExplanation
Biomass*5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Index only.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels. Biomass inferred from NDVI
Cloud cover5 - marginalInfrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels
Cloud optical depth4 - fairLow-density cloud only.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels
Earth surface albedo5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.VIS channels
Fire fractional cover2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS channels with high resolution for boundary detection
Fraction of Absorbed PAR (FAPAR)*4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.VIS channels including Red at 700 nm
Fraction of vegetated land*2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels
Glacier cover4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels; and panchromatic channel with high resolution, for glacier boundary detection
Glacier topography5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Daylight only.VIS and panchromatic channels with cross-track steering capability for stereoscopy between images from neighbour orbits
Ice sheet topography5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Daylight only.VIS and panchromatic channels with cross-track steering capability for stereoscopy between images from neighbouring orbits
Land cover*2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels
Land surface topography5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Daylight only.VIS and panchromatic channels with cross-track steering capability for stereoscopy between images from neighbour orbits
Leaf Area Index (LAI)*4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.. Infrequent coverage.VIS and NIR channels. LAI inferred from NDVI
Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)*2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.VIS and NIR channels
Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR)4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.VIS channels, range undersampled
Short-wave cloud reflectance5 - marginalInfrequent coverage.VIS and NIR channels. Unsuitable dynamic range (saturation)
Snow cover4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and panchromatic (higher resolution) channels
Soil moisture at surface5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Index only.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels. Soil moisture inferred from differential brightness
Soil type2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels
Upward short-wave irradiance at TOA5 - marginalSpectral interpolation needed.. Information on BRDF needed.. Infrequent coverage.VIS and NIR channels
Vegetation type*3 - highCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels
Aerosol volcanic ash5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels
Aerosol volcanic ash Total Column5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels
Sea-ice cover5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR (for contour enhancement) channels