The ESA DAISEX Imaging Spectroscopy campaigns in support of SPECTRA - first results

Part of ESA's Earth Observation Envelope Programme (EOEP) is intended to advance our understanding of the various processes occurring in the Earth's biosphere/geosphere, and their interactions with the atmosphere. Thus, the Programme's `Theme 3: Geosphere/Biosphere' focusses on the modelling and monitoring of land-surface processes, the study of interactions, and the analysis of climate impacts on the biosphere, with the objective of enhancing our skills in predicting the evolution of the Earth system. Real-life applications such as weather forecasting, crop-yield estimation, precision farming, the management of renewable and non-renewable resources, as well as environmental-hazard monitoring/forecasting, would all benefit from improved process model descriptions. A spaceborne scientific mission addressing the provision of information on geospheric/biospheric processes and their interactions with the atmosphere is currently being formulated. This mission implies the need for an instrument with high spectral and angular resolution and a very high radiometric performance, operating in the reflective and thermal parts of the spectrum, not only to identify but also to quantify the key variables driving the processes.