The HyperSpectral Imager for Climate Science (HySICS) is an imaging spectrometer and a key element of the CLARREO Pathfinder payload as the core subsystem that measures spectrally-resolved reflectance. It was developed by the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU-Boulder). The HySICS design builds upon 10+ years of LASP-led science research and technology development. 

Main Goals

HySICS is designed to measure the spectral content of sunlight reflected by Earth in the visible and near-infrared portions of the electromagnetic spectrum (Espejo et al., 2011). HySICS will take these measurements at high spatial resolution and high accuracy levels (0.3-0.6%, k=1). HySICS will regularly calibrate itself in orbit with direct measurements of the Sun (among other calibration measurement modes) allowing it to achieve its high level of accuracy (Kopp et al., 2017).

Unique Measurement Approach

HySICS is a push-broom imaging spectrometer, which means the instrument’s view of Earth — roughly a 70 km wide swath — is “swept” along the Earth as HySICS, mounted on the International Space Station, orbits Earth. The 70 km swath at nadir is comprised of 480 discrete measurement pixels. At each pixel location, HySICS simultaneously measures spectrally-resolved reflected sunlight from 350 to 2275 nm with 3 nm sampling. When aggregated over time, and after applying calibration coefficients, the data comprise “image cubes” that are the spatially and spectrally-resolved measurements of Earth’s solar reflectance and radiance.