Hyperspectral sensors offer an improvement over existing sensors in that they have hundreds of wavebands and can detect many different wavelengths, including visible, reflected near infrared, short wave infrared and sometimes thermal infrared. Hyperspectral Imaging (HSI) is a passive technique (i.e., it depends upon the sun or some other independent illumination source). HSI creates a larger number of images from contiguous, rather than disjoint, regions of the spectrum, and usually with much finer resolution. The increased sampling of the spectrum yields greater information. Many remote sensing tasks which are currently impractical or impossible with broad-band remote-sensing systems will be accomplished with HSI. New algorithms will allow more precise identification of sub-pixel components, leading to more accurate data.

SENSOR AGENCY SATELLITE OPERATING DATES SWATH (km) RESOLUTION (m) # OF BANDS SPECTRAL COVERAGE(nm) ARIES CSIRO (Australia) ARIES-1 (Australia) Scheduled 2004 15 30 32 400-2500 HSI ONR/STDC (USA) NEMO (USA) Scheduled 2002 30 30 200 400 - 2500 Back | Ocean-Colour Sensors | Home