Photogrammetria (PRS), 43 (1989) 167-180 167 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., Amsterdam - - Printed in The Netherlands HIRIS - Eos instrument with high spectral and spatial resolution* JEFF DOZIER1and ALEXANDER F.H. GOETZ 2 ICenter for Remote Sensing and Environmental Optics, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, U.S.A., and Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, U.S.A. '-'Center for the Study of Earth from Space, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0449, U.S.A. (Received 05 April 1988, accepted 14 August 1988) ABSTRACT Dozier, J. and Goetz, A.F.H., 1989. HIRIS-Eos instrument with high spectral and spatial reso- lution. Photogrammetria, 43: 167-180. The High-Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (HIRIS)) is a JPL-facility instrument designed for NASA's Earth Observing System (Eos). It will have 10-nm wide spectral bands from 0.4 to 2.5/~m at 30-m spatial resolution over a 24-km swath. The spectral resolution allows identification of many minerals in rocks and soils, important algal pigments in oceans and inland waters, spectral changes associated with plant canopy biochemistry, composition of atmospheric aerosols, and grain size of snow and its contamination by absorbing impurities. The bands will have 12-bit quantization over a dynamic range suitable for bright targets, such as snow. For targets of low brightness, such as water bodies, image-motion compensation will allow gains up to a factor of 8 to increase signal-to-noise ratios. The sensor will be able to point ± 26* crosstrack and +52°/ - 30 ° downtrack. In the 705-km orbit altitude proposed for Eos, the crosstrack pointing capability will allow 3-4 views during a 16-day revisit cycle. 1. THE ROLE OF HIRIS IN EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE A recent emphasis in the natural sciences is the attempt to understand the Earth as an integrated system. Traditionally, Earth science has advanced through studies within its various disciplines of individual components - at- mosphere, oceans, snow and ice, water, vegetation, soils crust, and interior. Models of these components have not been specifically designed to mesh with one another. Ecological and hydrological models, for example, usually require data and produce results over relatively small areas, whereas global climate *An earlier version of this paper was previously published in the proceedings of the Twenty-First International Symposium on Remote Sensing of Environment, Environmental Research Institute of Michigan, Ann Arbor. 0031-8663/89/$03.50 © 1989 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V.