Tradespace exploration for a hyperspectral smallsat mission to follow the SWOT altimetry mission
Abstract
Advances in small satellite technologies have enabled new observing strategies for a variety of applications, be it through free-flying constellation missions or through missions complementing an existing larger mission. This abstract describes an example of the latter, in which we study a mission concept consisting of a single small satellite carrying a hyperspectral visible and near infrared (VNIR) spectrometer to complement the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission, currently in development. SWOT is a wide-swath radar altimetry mission that will be launched in 2021. A hyperspectral VNIR sensor would increase the value of SWOT by providing some useful context for the radar images which would help in their interpretation and by providing scientifically valuable cotemporal water quality observations.
Here we present a pre-formulation tradespace exploration study currently being conducted at Texas A&M University for such a mission. The main constraints of the mission are to cover specific bands in the visible related to suspended sediment, chlorophyll and dissolved organic carbon, and to fly in loose formation with the SWOT mission with significant overlap in the swaths, in order to facilitate cross-registration of the datasets. The joint trade space of spatial resolution, spectral resolution, swath, and revisit time is systematically explored by enumerating hundreds of different alternatives for both instruments and orbits. Preliminary results suggest that a 6U Cubesat carrying a spectrometer with 12 channels in the VNIR providing 25m spatial resolution within a swath of 50km is feasible and a good compromise among competing performance objectives and cost. A larger, smallsat mission that achieves the same swath of the SWOT mission (120km) with better spectral resolution and similar spatial resolution is also feasible at higher cost.- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFMIN14A..08A
- Keywords:
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- 1817 Extreme events;
- HYDROLOGY;
- 1880 Water management;
- HYDROLOGY;
- 1910 Data assimilation;
- integration and fusion;
- INFORMATICS;
- 1972 Sensor web;
- INFORMATICS