Hyperspectral Imaging of the Earth with the DESIS instrument

Abstract

In recent years, spaceborne imaging spectroscopy has made significant progress, evolving from a limited range of instruments and available data to a broad selection of missions, simultaneously acquiring quality data over large areas of the Earth. The spectral information provided by these missions is playing an increasingly important role in our understanding of the Earth's surface and its dynamic processes, in monitoring the environment and in managing the Earth's resources. DESIS, launched in June 2018, was the mission that inaugurated this new time, followed by the missions PRISMA (2019), HISUI (2019), EnMAP (2022) and EMIT (2022). DESIS has been in operation for more than 5 years and has acquired by 6 November 2023, 279,146 images of the Earth. A large community of commercial and scientific users employ regularly DESIS products on applications ranging from environmental monitoring and precision agriculture to coastal and marine studies.