You can now download and use sets of hyperspectral data captured by our hyperspectral imager HyperScout 2. As part of the The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Third Party Missions (TPM) Programme, the FSSCat collection is now open to users, providing hyperspectral data coverage over some locations worldwide, as measured by the HyperScout 2 sensor.
The HyperScout 2 is a three-in-one instrument that combines hyperspectral and thermal imaging with high-level data processing and Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities, it enables operational and science missions from small platforms and has already been implemented in a number of commercial and institutional space missions. The first mission which benefited from the HyperScout 2 measurements is the FSSCat, an innovative mission concept consisting of two federated 6U CubeSats in support of the Copernicus Land and Marine Environment services. A dual microwave payload and HyperScout 2 have been used to measure soil moisture, ice extent and ice thickness, as well as to detect melting ponds over ice.
The data publicly made available by ESA consists of L-1C VNIR data product, which includes hyperspectral cubes of TOA reflectance in the VNIR range, as well as relevant meta-data that adheres to Earthnet Data Assessment Pilot’s (EDAP) best practice guidelines. This product consists of georeferenced and ortho-rectified image tiles that contain spectral reflectance data at the top-of-the-atmosphere. Each image tile contains radiometrically corrected and ortho-rectified band images that are projected onto a map, as well as geolocation information and the coordinate system used.
The FSSCat hyperspectral datasets have been processed by cosine and data quality has been assessed by the ESA EDAP team before publication, including the results of appropriate calibration and validation of the hyperspectral instrument.
Dr Marco Esposito, Managing Director of cosine Remote Sensing says: “we are delighted that users can now download and utilize the datasets produced by our hyperspectral instrument. These remarkable datasets boast an extensive swath and number of spectral bands, making it a unique and complimentary addition to Sentinel 2, PRISMA, and ENMAP instruments. We are also proud that ESA has qualified us as a third-party contributor to the Copernicus program. This marks an important step towards qualifying our data for a number of applications, and making them exploitable for many future hyperspectral constellations.”
The use cases covered by the datasets made available by the agency are quite broad, covering: agriculture and vegetation, irrigation, change detection, water quality, flooding and water delineation, drought and desertification, fire hazard and fire monitoring, volcanoes and soil moisture.
Dr Nathan Vercruyssen, cosine Remote Sensing project manager, says: “we are glad to have been able to go through the Copernicus third party qualification process. We have learned a lot as a group and the HyperScout data quality improved considerably throughout the process.”
For more information on the specifications of the available products and how to access them, please visit ESA’s data collection page.
Availability and restrictions to the use of the data are described in the ESA Third Party Missions Terms and Conditions document.
About FSSCAT
FSSCat is a ground-breaking mission concept consisting of two federated 6U CubeSats that support the Copernicus Land and Marine Environment services. The mission has been developed by a European consortium led by Elecnor DEIMOS in conjunction with Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and three other companies: Golbriak Space OÜ (Estonia), Tyvak International (Italy), and cosine.
About cosine
cosine is a leading worldwide company in the development of space instrumentation, such as Silicon Pore Optics and remote sensing solutions with onboard processing. We combine physics and technology to bring out-of-the-box solutions to our clients. We have been developing and delivering innovative measurement systems for space and industrial applications since 1998. Our company operates 1,000 m2 of cleanrooms and high-tech assembly facilities to build and test the systems we produce for customers at our headquarters in Sassenheim, The Netherlands.
