A space-borne visible-NIR hyperspectral imager for coastal phenology

The temporal variability, or phenology, of animals and plants in coastal zone and marine habitats is a function of geography and climatic conditions, of the chemical and physical characteristics of each particular habitat, and of interactions between these organisms. These conditions play an important role in defining the diversity of life. The quantitative study of phenology is required to protect and make wise use of wetland and other coastal resources. We describe a low cost space-borne sensor and mission concept that will enable such studies using high quality, broad band hyperspectral observations of a wide range of habitats at Landsat-class spatial resolution and with a 3 day or better revisit rate, providing high signal to noise observations for aquatic scenes and consistent view geometry for wetland and terrestrial vegetation scenes.