MERIS

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MERIS was designed to acquire data over the Earth whenever illumination conditions are suitable. The instrument's 68.5° field of view around nadir covers a swath width of 1150 km.

MERIS’s primary mission is to measure the sea colour of the oceans and coastal areas. As a secondary mission it is also capable of estimating:  
 

• Cloud type, top height, and albedo
• Top and bottom indices of atmosphere vegetation
• Photosynthetically available radiation
• Surface pressure
• Water vapour total column content for all surfaces
• Aerosol load over land
• Vegetation indices
• Fractional Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FAPAR)

MERIS measures the reflected solar radiation from the Earth's surface and clouds in the visible and near-infrared spectral regions. Consequently, observation is nominally limited to the day side of the Earth.
 
 

No. Band centre (nm) Band width (nm) Applications 1 412.5 10 Yellow substance and detritus pigments 2 442.5 10 Chlorophyll absorption maximum 3 490 10 Chlorophyll and other pigments 4 510 10 Suspended sediment, red tides 5 560 10 Chlorophyll absorption minimum 6 620 10 Suspended sediment 7 665 10 Chlorophyll absorption & fluorescence reference 8 681 7.5 Chlorophyll fluorescence peak 9 708.75 10 Fluorescence reference, atmosphere corrections 10 753.75 7.5 Vegetation, cloud, O2 absorption band reference 11 760.625 3.75 O2 R- branch absorption band 12 778.75 15 Atmosphere corrections 13 865 20 Atmosphere corrections 14 885 10 Vegetation, water vapour reference 15 900 10 Water vapour

 
 

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