CHRIS the 6 year old scientist
The CHRIS (Compact High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer) Hyperspectral Mission, developed within SSTL's Optical Payload Group (OPG) in Sevenoaks has recently celebrated its 6th birthday.
CHRIS image of Mbengga
The more technical Space Blog reader will be interested to hear that the platform provides pointing in both across-track and along-track directions, for target acquisition and multi-angle observations, particularly important for canopy discrimination. The instrument covers a spectral range from 400nm to 1050nm, at least 11nm resolution with a minimum ground sampling interval of 17m. In this mode it is possible to read out 18 spectral bands. The locations and widths of the spectral bands are programmable. Selectable on-chip integration can increase the number of bands to 62 for a spatial sampling interval of 34m. The swath width imaged is 13km at perigee. This highly flexible instrument also has the ability to mimic the spectral setting of other instruments and this has been useful in acquiring the same band sets as the Spot and IRS instruments, a useful feature for its role in the International Charter.
The Mission continues to operate successfully even in its sixth year of operation and demonstrates the success of the mission and the utility of the instrument and platform. Currently, approximately 90 scientists are serviced by CHRIS with data from 200 sites in 40 counties around the globe. SSTL continues to provide, on a daily basis, the control of the instrument and the processing of the data sets.
