Microbolometer instrument payload design for a microsatellite mission

This paper describes the design of the mission and the instrument. It compares the use of microsatellites, ground and air based platforms. An Earth observation microsatellite mission is based on microbolometer technology. The detectors are linear arrays, filtered to be sensitive in five bands: 3 bands between 8.5 and 12.5 microns, and 2 bands between 3.0 and 4.5 microns. It is expected that this Earth observation satellite will produce useful dates like ice-shelf formation/melt, cloud monitoring, oil spills, forest fire tracking and damage assessment, Kyoto Accord compliance monitoring, city heat bloom, temperatures of oceans, land, and ice with the focus on northern coastal waters, Arctic and sub-Arctic land areas. Hence, satellite-based sensors have more advantages over terrestrial or airborne sensors.