The Earth Explorer Land Surface Processes and Interactions Mission: From radiances to processes

One of the elements of the European Space Agencies new 'Living Planet' Programme for Earth Observation are the Earth Explorer Missions. These are research/demonstration missions with the emphasis on advancing understanding of different processes, which help govern the Earth Systems. One of the four Earth Explorer Missions which was subjected to a Phase A study is the Land Surface Processes and Interactions Mission (LSPIM). The major scientific objective of the LSPIM is to increase our understanding of land-surface processes and interactions. In order to retrieve relevant: geo-/biophysical variables needed to Red and adjust the models describing the processes and interactions, detailed information at high spatial, spectral, directional and temporal resolution is required. To fulfil the mission objectives, a hyperspectral imager is proposed as the LSPIM I instrument. The mission will provide contiguous spectral coverage in 142 bands within the solar spectral region (0.45 - 2.35 mu m). The spectral sampling interval will be 10nm in the VNIR and 15nm in the SWIR. Further TIR observations will be performed in two wavebands. A spatial resolution of 50m x 50m width a swath width of 50km will be provided. This mission will also have a depointing capability for angular observations along-track and areal access across track. 7 directions from which one is programmable available for angular observation. It is the purpose of this paper to outline the planned spaceborne mission.