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Supported instruments

FarEarth is satellite- and sensor-agnostic. It supports processing of multiple sensor architectures and spectral bands for Earth observation applications.

Sensor architectures​

Pushbroom cameras​

A pushbroom camera, also called a line-scan camera, uses a single line of detectors that sweeps across the ground as the satellite moves. It builds an image one line at a time. It is the most common architecture for Earth observation satellites.

Pushbroom instruments simplify the spectral calibration. They are sensitive to platform jitter and attitude errors. It requires precise orbit and pointing data for georeferencing.

Frame and pushframe cameras​

Frame cameras capture a 2D image in a single exposure. It is similar to a conventional camera. It is commonly used for smaller satellites. A pushframe design captures successive, slightly overlapping frames that can be combined into a longer, continuous image.

A single frame can be easier to geolocate. Frame cameras can suffer from motion blur due to the longer exposure required with these sensors. The cameras typically have lower resolution than pushbroom sensors.

Bayer filter cameras​

Bayer instruments are a variation on frame cameras. The sensor is overlaid with a mosaic colour filter (typically RGGB). Each detector captures a single wavelength. This design is typically limited to red-green-blue images.

These sensors are relatively low-cost and compact, making them ideal for CubeSats. They are typically used in low-resolution applications.

Other cameras​

Variations on these designs can be supported in FarEarth. For example, frame cameras with different sections covered by different spectral filters can be captured so that the same area on the ground is covered by various spectral responses when acquired with a pushframe approach.

Spectral bands​

Multispectral​

Multispectral cameras typically capture between 3 and 10 spectral bands. The spectral range can span from the visible to near-infrared, and sometimes to shortwave infrared (SWIR).

Multispectral cameras enable land cover and vegetation change detection applications. It attains a balance between spectral diversity and data volume.

Hyperspectral​

Hyperspectral cameras capture 10's or 100's of narrow, evenly spaced and contiguous spectral bands. Each pixel is represented by a near-continuous spectral signature.

Hyperspectral cameras enable material identification and advanced applications for vegetation stress assessment. Hyperspectral cameras generate a large volume of data. It requires more complex calibration and processing.

Thermal​

Thermal instruments measure emitted thermal radiation, rather than reflected sunlight. They operate in the long- and mid-wave infrared spectrum. Thermal cameras can be used for night-time observation since they do not rely on the sun.

Typical applications for thermal instruments are wildfire detection, urban heat mapping and agriculture. They are lower-resolution than visible and near-infrared images due to their longer wavelengths.