BackForwardInstrument:  DESIS 

Instrument details
Acronym DESIS
Full name DLR Earth Sensing Imaging Spectrometer
Purpose Land observation and detailed vegetation classification
Short description VNIR spectrometer. 240 channels in the spectral range 450-915 nm. Further details not yet available
Background Consolidated technology
Scanning Technique Information not available
Resolution 90 m at s.s.p.
Coverage / Cycle Depending on pointing strategy. Limited by the ISS orbital inclination (51.6°)
Mass Power Data Rate

 

Providing Agency DLR
Instrument Maturity Flown on an R&D satellite
Utilization Period: 2018 to 2024
Last update: 2021-06-22
Detailed characteristics
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
  • Narrow-band or hyperspectral imagers
  • Hyperspectral imager (for vegetation)
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • Biomass
  • Fraction of Absorbed PAR (FAPAR)
  • Fraction of vegetated land
  • 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
Aerosol column burden4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR hyperspectral channels including the 760 nm band for high-level aerosol
Aerosol effective radius4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR hyperspectral channels including the 760 nm band for high-level aerosol
Aerosol mass mixing ratio4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR hyperspectral channels including the 760 nm band for high-level aerosol
Aerosol Optical Depth4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR hyperspectral channels including the 760 nm band for high-level aerosol
Aerosol type4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR hyperspectral channels including the 760 nm band for high-level aerosol
Biomass*4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Index only.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR hyperspectral channels. Biomass inferred from NDVI and other vegetation indexes
Cloud cover4 - fairInfrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR hyperspectral channels
Cloud optical depth4 - fairLow-density cloud only.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR hyperspectral, channels
Cloud top height4 - fairInfrequent coverage.. Daylight only.NIR hyperspectral channels to estimate the total-column O2 above the cloud top as measured around 760 nm
Cloud type5 - marginalInfrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR hyperspectral channels
Downward short-wave irradiance at Earth surface4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Highly indirect.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR hyperspectral channels
Earth surface albedo4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.VIS hyperspectral channels
Fire fractional cover2 - very highDaylight only.. Cloud sensitive.VIS channels with high resolution for boundary detection
Fraction of Absorbed PAR (FAPAR)*3 - highHigh troposphere only.. Cloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.VIS channels including Red at 700 nm
Fraction of vegetated land*2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR hyperspectral channels
Glacier cover4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels
Glacier topography5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Daylight only.VIS channel(s) and cross-track steering capability for stereoscopy between images from neighbour orbits
Land cover2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR hyperspectral channels
Land surface topography5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Daylight only.VIS channel(s) and cross-track steering capability for stereoscopy between images from neighbouring orbits
Leaf Area Index (LAI)*3 - highCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.. Infrequent coverage.VIS and NIR hyperspectral channels. LAI inferred from NDVI and other vegetation indexes
Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)*1 - primaryCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.VIS and NIR hyperspectral channels
Oil spill cover4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.. Infrequent coverage.VIS hyperspectral channels
Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR)3 - highCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.VIS channels, range accurately sampled
Short-wave cloud reflectance5 - marginalInfrequent coverage.VIS and NIR channels. Unsuitable dynamic range (saturation)
Snow cover4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR channels
Soil moisture at surface5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Index only.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR hyperspectral channels. Soil moisture inferred from differential brightness
Soil type2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR hyperspectral channels
Specific humidity4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Very coarse vertical resolution.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.NIR hyperspectral channels including the ro-sigma-tau band of water vapour around 940 nm
Upward short-wave irradiance at TOA5 - marginalSpectral interpolation needed.. Information on BRDF needed.. Infrequent coverage.VIS and NIR hyperspectral channels
Vegetation type*2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR hyperspectral channels
Aerosol volcanic ash4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR hyperspectral channels including the 760 nm band for high-level ash
Aerosol volcanic ash Total Column4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS and NIR hyperspectral channels including the 760 nm band for high-level ash
Integrated Water Vapour (IWV)5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.NIR hyperspectral channels covering the 940 nm band