BackForwardInstrument:  OHIS 

Instrument details
Acronym OHIS
Full name OrbView Hyperspectral Imaging System
Purpose Land and vegetation observation
Short description Hyperspectral VIS/NIR/SWIR radiometer with 200 channels in three sub-units [see detailed characteristics below]
Background New development
Scanning Technique Pushbroom, close to nadir: frames of 5 km (cross-track) x 20 km (along track)
Resolution 8 m at s.s.p.
Coverage / Cycle Global in 10 days for cells of 100 km
Mass Power Data Rate

 

Providing Agency GeoEye
Instrument Maturity Flown on an R&D satellite
Utilization Period: 2001 to 2001
Last update: 2020-01-07
Detailed characteristics

Spectral range

Number of channels

Spectral resolution

SNR @ specified albedo

450 - 905 nm

40

11.4 nm

….. @ …. % albedo

830 - 1740 nm

80

11.4 nm

….. @ …. % albedo

1580 - 2490 nm

80

11.4 nm

….. @ …. % albedo

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
Aerosol column burden4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR (including the 760 nm band for high-level aerosol) and SWIR hyperspectral channels
Aerosol effective radius4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR including the 760 nm band for high-level aerosol, and SWIR hyperspectral channels
Aerosol mass mixing ratio4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR (including the 760 nm band for high-level aerosol) and SWIR hyperspectral channels
Aerosol Optical Depth4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR (including the 760 nm band for high-level aerosol) and SWIR hyperspectral channels
Aerosol type4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR (including the 760 nm band for high-level aerosol) and SWIR hyperspectral channels
Biomass*3 - highCloud sensitive.. Index only.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral channels. Biomass inferred from NDVI and other vegetation indexes
Cloud cover4 - fairInfrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral channels
Cloud optical depth2 - very highLow-density cloud only.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR 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
Downward short-wave irradiance at Earth surface2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Highly indirect.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral channels
Earth surface albedo4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.VIS hyperspectral channels
Cloud type5 - marginalInfrequent coverage.. Daylight only.. Cloud sensitive.VIS, NIR and SWIR 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*1 - primaryCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral
Glacier cover3 - highCloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR channels, screening ice from clouds
Land cover*1 - primaryCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral channels
Leaf Area Index (LAI)*1 - primaryCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.. Infrequent coverage.VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral channels
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 reflectance4 - fairInfrequent coverage.VIS, NIR and SWIR channels. Unsuitable dynamic range (saturation)
Snow cover1 - primaryCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR channels, enabling screening snow from clouds
Soil moisture at surface5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Index only.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral channels. Soil moisture inferred from differential brightness
Soil type1 - primaryCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR 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, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral channels
Vegetation type*1 - primaryCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral channels
Aerosol volcanic ash4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR hyperspectral channels including the 760 nm band for high-level ash
Aerosol volcanic ash Total Column4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR 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
Sea-ice cover4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR (for contour enhancement) and SWIR (for discrimination from clouds) channels