Spectral Requirements for the Development of a New Hyperspectral Radiometer Integrated in Automated Networks - the Hypernets Sensor

Networking of automated instruments on unmanned platforms has proved to be the most effective way to provide validation data for earth observation optical missions. However, with most current networks, such as AERONET-OC [1] for water and RADCALNET for land [2], the validation data are multispectral and/or limited in viewing geometries, resulting in modelling associated uncertainties to cover all spectral bands of all sensors and to correspond to satellite viewing geometries. Therefore, the HYPERNETS Project is developing a new hyperspectral radiometer to be integrated in automated networks. The main goal of the project is to acquire hyperspectral measurements of water and land reflectance and validate every optical earth observation satellite remote-sensing sensor in the Visible-Near Infrared (VNIR) and Short-wave Infrared (SWIR) spectral range. The present study reports the spectral characteristics of current and future earth observation missions. These characteristics represent the main drivers for the design of the HYPERNETS sensor.