| Aerosol column burden | 4 - fair | Cloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR (including the 760 nm band for high-level aerosol) and SWIR hyperspectral channels |
| Aerosol effective radius | 4 - fair | Cloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR including the 760 nm band for high-level aerosol, and SWIR hyperspectral channels |
| Aerosol mass mixing ratio | 4 - fair | Cloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR (including the 760 nm band for high-level aerosol) and SWIR hyperspectral channels |
| Aerosol Optical Depth | 4 - fair | Cloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR (including the 760 nm band for high-level aerosol) and SWIR hyperspectral channels |
| Aerosol type | 4 - fair | Cloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR (including the 760 nm band for high-level aerosol) and SWIR hyperspectral channels |
| Biomass* | 3 - high | Cloud sensitive.. Index only.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral channels. Biomass inferred from NDVI and other vegetation indexes |
| Cloud cover | 4 - fair | Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral channels |
| Cloud optical depth | 2 - very high | Low-density cloud only.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral channels |
| Cloud top height | 4 - fair | Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only. | NIR hyperspectral channels to estimate the total-column O2 above the cloud top as measured around 760 nm |
| Downward short-wave irradiance at Earth surface | 2 - very high | Cloud sensitive.. Highly indirect.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral channels |
| Earth surface albedo | 4 - fair | Cloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage. | VIS hyperspectral channels |
| Cloud type | 5 - marginal | Daylight only.. Infrequent coverage.. Cloud sensitive. | VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral channels |
| Fire fractional cover | 2 - very high | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only. | VIS channels with high resolution for boundary detection |
| Fraction of Absorbed PAR (FAPAR)* | 3 - high | High troposphere only.. Cloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage. | VIS channels including Red at 700 nm |
| Fraction of vegetated land* | 1 - primary | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral |
| Glacier cover | 3 - high | Cloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels, screening ice from clouds |
| Glacier topography | 5 - marginal | Cloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Daylight only. | VIS channel(s) and cross-track steering capability for stereoscopy between images from neighbour orbits |
| Ice sheet topography | 5 - marginal | Cloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Daylight only. | VIS channel(s) and cross-track steering capability for stereoscopy between images from neighbour orbits |
| Land cover | 1 - primary | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral channels |
| Land surface topography | 5 - marginal | Cloud 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)* | 1 - primary | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.. Infrequent coverage. | VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral channels |
| Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)* | 1 - primary | Cloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage. | VIS and NIR hyperspectral channels |
| Oil spill cover | 4 - fair | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.. Infrequent coverage. | VIS hyperspectral channels |
| Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR) | 3 - high | Cloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage. | VIS channels, range accurately sampled |
| Sea-ice cover | 4 - fair | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR (for contour enhancement) and SWIR (for discrimination from clouds) channels |
| Short-wave cloud reflectance | 4 - fair | Infrequent coverage. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels. Unsuitable dynamic range (saturation) |
| Snow cover | 1 - primary | Cloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR channels, enabling screening snow from clouds |
| Soil moisture at surface | 5 - marginal | Cloud sensitive.. Index only.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral channels. Soil moisture inferred from differential brightness |
| Soil type | 1 - primary | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral channels |
| Specific humidity | 4 - fair | Cloud sensitive.. Very coarse vertical resolution.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only. | NIR hyperspectral channels including the ro-sigma-tau band of water vapour around 940 nm |
| Integrated Water Vapour (IWV) | 5 - marginal | Cloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only. | NIR hyperspectral channels covering the 940 nm band |
| Upward short-wave irradiance at TOA | 5 - marginal | Spectral interpolation needed.. Information on BRDF needed.. Infrequent coverage. | VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral channels |
| Vegetation type* | 1 - primary | Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral channels |
| Aerosol volcanic ash | 4 - fair | Cloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral channels including the 760 nm band for high-level ash |
| Aerosol volcanic ash Total Column | 4 - fair | Cloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only. | VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral channels including the 760 nm band for high-level ash |
Instrument: HYC