HMI, a Spaceborne High-Precision Greenhouse Gas Imager Developed by AIOFM, Returns First On-Orbit Data
The High-precision Main Greenhouse gas Imaging instrument (HMI) aboard the Pujiang-4 satellite began imaging on September 27 and downlinked its first data. The instrument's developer, Xiong Wei's team at the Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics (AIOFM), conducted a preliminary assessment showing that the payload's functions and performance meet design requirements. HMI uses an information modulation technique combining spatial imaging and spectral interferometry; in a 520 km orbit it acquires hyperspectral data with a 30 km swath, spatial resolution better than 400 m, and spectral resolution better than 0.125 nm. Based on the first data, the team preliminarily estimated the methane emission rate of the Bogatyr open-pit mine in Kazakhstan at about 27.52±1.70 tons per hour.
Why we recommend it: The original article gives HMI's swath width, spatial resolution and spectral resolution, and uses the first data to estimate methane emission rates at a mining site, showing the on-orbit performance of the combined spatial imaging and spectral interferometry scheme.