APEX-airborne PRISM experiment: hyperspectral radiometric performance analysis for the simulation of the future ESA land surface processes earth explorer mission

Abstract

The European Space Agency (ESA) has identified the necessity to initiate a study that concentrates on the definition of an airborne imaging spectrometer which could represent a precursor to the spaceborne PRISM. The study included the definition of an Airborne PRISM Experiment (APEX) that will contribute to the preparation, calibration, validation, simulation, and application development for the PRISM mission. The APEX instrument is defined as an airborne pushbroom imager with 1000 pixels across track and 200 user selectable spectral bands over the wavelength range from 450-2500 nm. The complete APEX system will include an aircraft, navigation data, laboratory and in-flight calibration as well as a data archiving and processing facility. The definition of the specifications of the APEX instrument is based on a sensor model taking into account various parameters of the expected operation range of the instrument. The approach used defines the radiometric properties of expected scene radiances including SNR and NE(Delta) (rho) . The APEX system is presented and in compliance with the PRISM instrument, conclusions on the simulation possibilities are derived and discussed.