Updated: 07 Mar 2005

TERSS Satellites

TERSS captures data from a series of satellites that are polar-orbiting sun-synchronous earth resource monitoring platforms carrying instruments designed to image the earth's surface in selected areas of the electro-magnetic spectrum.

LANDSAT

Landsat 7 is the latest in the US Landsat series of near-polar orbiting earth resources satellites. The onboard Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) instrument is capable of receiving 15 metre panchromatic data in addition to other similar optical bands as recorded by the Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM).

ACRES recommenced routine reception of Landsat 5 on 1 July 2003.

ERS

The European Earth Resources (ERS) satellite series carry a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) instrument that transmits and records the return signal in the C-band area of the radar region of the spectrum.

RADARSAT

The RADARSAT satellite carries a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) instrument that transmits and records the return signal in the C-band area of the radar region of the spectrum.

MODIS

MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) is the key instrument aboard the satellites Terra (EOS AM-1), launched on 18 December 1999 and Aqua (EOS PM-1), launched on 4 May 2002. MODIS views almost the entire surface of the Earth every day, acquiring data in 36 spectral bands over a 2330 km swath.

EO-1

The Hyperion sensor onboard the satellite is the first hyperspectral sensor on an Earth observation satellite. It covers the complete spectral range from 0.4 to 2.5 µm in 220 bands. Such comprehensive spectral resolution permits very detailed land cover classifications or identifications to be performed.