CHIME
Copernicus Hyperspectral Imaging Mission for the Environment
Mission Overview
The CHIME mission comprises two identical satellites, CHIME-A and CHIME-B, each equipped with a Hyperspectral Imager (HSI). The HSI is a pushbroom-type grating spectrometer specifically designed to achieve high signal-to-noise performance and ensure consistent data quality.
CHIME will systematically acquire high-resolution hyperspectral imagery across more than 200 spectral bands in the 400-2500 nm range, enabling detailed characterization of vegetation, soils, and surface materials.
The mission supports a wide range of applications, including agriculture, food security, ecosystem monitoring, and natural resource management. It will provide key information on the biophysical and biochemical properties of crops, as well as soil texture and organic content, enabling precision agriculture, improved land management, and early detection of vegetation stress. In addition, CHIME will contribute to forest monitoring, inland and coastal water quality assessment, and the detection and quantification of minerals, supporting the objectives of the EU Raw Materials Initiative.
Operating in a sun-synchronous orbit at approximately 600 km altitude, the two satellites will provide a swath width of 128 km, ensuring systematic coverage and complementarity with Copernicus Sentinel-2, particularly for land-cover mapping applications.
The mission is designed for a nominal operational lifetime of 7 years, with consumables sized to extend operations up to 12 years.
Key Application Areas
Technical Documents & References
