Hyperion: The first global orbital spectrometer, earth observing-1 (EO-1) satellite (2000–2017)

Abstract

In February 2017, the Earth Observing One (EO-1) satellite mission successfully completed sixteen years and three months of Earth imaging by its two unique instruments, the Hyperion and the Advanced Land Imager (ALI). Both instruments have served as prototypes for new orbital sensors. Hyperion has provided the only available global sample of the Earth's surface with: (i) passive optical mid-morning observations at moderate spatial resolution (30 m) to match the Landsat series; and (ii) spectral coverage over almost the full optical spectrum in 10 nm contiguous bands, in visible through shortwave infrared (VSWIR, 0.4–2.5 μm) wavelengths. Consequently, Hyperion is a heritage platform for future full-spectrum VSWIR orbital spectrometers, including the German mission, EnMAP (2019), and the NASA pre-Phase A (yet unscheduled) mission, the Hyperspectral InfraRed Imager (HyspIRI), defined by the 2007 Decadal Survey conducted by the US National Research Council. We provide an overview of the mission's lifetime and Hyperion's scientific and application accomplishments, including calibration & validation activities, data quality evaluations during end of mission precession changes to the orbit and overpass time, and the development of a user-friendly science quality archive.