iTSensing Open Data Satellite Catalog
Complete Image Specifications

Technical reference for the open/public Earth-observation mission families used or planned in the iTSensing catalog. The document separates optical multispectral, thermal, SAR, hyperspectral, ocean-colour, atmospheric spectroscopy and altimetry, and describes how each data type should enter the iTSensing raster-analysis pipeline.

LandsatSentinel-1/2/3MODIS ASTEREMITECOSTRESS ALOSNISARBIOMASS CBERSAmazônia-1Atmosphere / Altimetry

1. Catalog Scope

The primary catalog documented here covers the open-data missions already discussed for iTSensing: Landsat 8/9, Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2, Sentinel-3 OLCI/SLSTR, MODIS, ASTER, EMIT, ECOSTRESS, ALOS/PALSAR, NISAR, CBERS, Amazônia-1 and ESA Biomass. For completeness, the document also includes open Copernicus atmospheric/altimetry families relevant to the planned Ocean & Atmosphere module: Sentinel-5P, Sentinel-4 and Sentinel-6.

Commercial data are intentionally excluded. Planet, Pleiades and commercial marketplace assets belong in a separate commercial-catalog specification because their licensing, pricing, delivery and product rules differ from open data.

Important terminology: not every catalog item is a conventional “image”. Sentinel-3 SRAL and Sentinel-6 are along-track altimetry missions; atmospheric spectrometers may deliver geophysical grids/swaths in NetCDF rather than RGB-like raster scenes. iTSensing should preserve these physical semantics instead of forcing every product into the same image model.

2. Quick Comparison

Mission / Sensor	Type	Key Resolution	Spectral / Radar Domain	Main Use	Open Data
Landsat 8/9 OLI/TIRS	Multispectral + thermal	15 / 30 / 100 m native	VNIR–SWIR + TIR	Land, vegetation, water, temperature	Yes
Sentinel-1	SAR	Mode dependent; down to ~5 m class	C-band, 5.405 GHz	All-weather land/ocean, deformation	Yes
Sentinel-2 MSI	Multispectral	10 / 20 / 60 m	13 bands, 443–2190 nm class	Land, vegetation, inland/coastal water	Yes
Sentinel-3 OLCI	Ocean-colour multispectral	300 m	21 bands, 400–1020 nm	Ocean colour, chlorophyll, water quality	Yes
Sentinel-3 SLSTR	Optical + thermal	500 m / 1 km	VIS–SWIR + MWIR/TIR	SST, LST, fires, clouds	Yes
MODIS Terra/Aqua	Multispectral + thermal	250 / 500 / 1000 m	36 bands, 0.4–14.4 µm class	Land, ocean, atmosphere, climate	Yes
ASTER Terra	Multispectral + stereo + thermal	15 / 30 / 90 m	14 bands VNIR–SWIR–TIR	Geology, DEM, land temperature	Yes
EMIT	Hyperspectral imaging spectroscopy	60 m	285 reflectance bands, 381–2493 nm	Mineralogy, vegetation, spectroscopy	Yes
ECOSTRESS	Thermal	70 m products	5 TIR + auxiliary band	LST, evapotranspiration, plant stress	Yes
ALOS / PALSAR	SAR	Mode dependent; open global mosaics 25 m	L-band ~23.6 cm	Forest structure, biomass, deformation	Yes*
NISAR	SAR / InSAR	~7 m along-track, 2–8 m cross-track capability	L-band + S-band	Deformation, ecosystems, cryosphere	Yes
ESA Biomass	Polarimetric SAR	Product dependent	P-band 435 MHz	Forest biomass/carbon/structure	Yes
CBERS-4 / 4A	Multispectral / panchromatic	2–64 m depending camera/mission	Visible + NIR; some legacy IR on CBERS-4	Land monitoring	Yes
Amazônia-1 WFI	Wide-swath multispectral	~60–64 m	Blue, Green, Red, NIR	Large-area land/forest monitoring	Yes
Sentinel-5P TROPOMI	Atmospheric spectrometer	km-scale	UV–VIS–NIR–SWIR	NO₂, O₃, SO₂, CO, CH₄, aerosols	Yes
Sentinel-4 UVN	Geostationary atmospheric spectrometer	~8 km class design sampling	UV–VIS–NIR	Hourly European air quality	Copernicus
Sentinel-6 Poseidon-4	Radar altimetry	Along-track measurement	Dual-frequency altimeter	SSH, waves, ocean wind	Yes

* Availability differs between ALOS standard scenes and JAXA open global mosaic products; iTSensing should identify which collection is being searched rather than treating all PALSAR data as one product.

3. Data-Type Taxonomy

Optical Multispectral

Landsat OLI, Sentinel-2, CBERS, Amazônia-1. Pixel values become reflectance after appropriate processing.

Thermal

Landsat TIRS, ASTER TIR, SLSTR, MODIS, ECOSTRESS. Used for radiance/brightness temperature/surface temperature.

SAR

Sentinel-1, ALOS, NISAR, Biomass. Amplitude/backscatter and phase; independent of daylight and largely cloud-penetrating.

Hyperspectral

EMIT. Hundreds of contiguous narrow bands; wavelength metadata is essential.

Ocean Colour / Atmosphere

OLCI, MODIS, TROPOMI, Sentinel-4. Product semantics include Rrs, trace-gas columns, cloud and aerosol retrievals.

Altimetry

Sentinel-3 SRAL / Sentinel-6. Along-track geophysical measurements; not naturally a 2-D imagery cube.

4. Recommended iTSensing Processing Contract

Provider native product
        ↓
Download + integrity verification
        ↓
Unpack SAFE / HDF / NetCDF / ZIP as required
        ↓
Interpret product level + sensor metadata
        ↓
Convert only the scientifically relevant variables
        ↓
GeoTIFF / COG for true raster variables
        +
.statistics.json
        ↓
S3 project path
        ↓
Layer / commit / warm tile

4.1 Do not flatten all missions into one generic raster

Data Type	Recommended iTSensing Representation
Optical / thermal image	COG + statistics JSON
Hyperspectral cube	Multi-band COG where practical + wavelength metadata + statistics JSON
SAR detected backscatter	COG per polarization or multiband COG; preserve calibration unit
SAR complex / InSAR source	Preserve complex product for analysis; preview may be COG
Atmospheric geophysical swath	Geolocated COG/grid when rasterization is scientifically valid; otherwise native NetCDF plus derived raster
Altimetry track	Prefer point/vector/time-series representation; gridding should be a separate analysis

5. Landsat 8 / Landsat 9 — OLI/TIRS

USGS / NASAOperator

11 bandsOLI + TIRS

185 km classSwath

16 days eachRepeat orbit class

Landsat 8 and 9 provide a long-term land-observation standard. For iTSensing, Collection 2 Level-2 is generally the most analysis-friendly choice because it includes Surface Reflectance and Surface Temperature products where available.

Band	Name	Spectral Range	Native Resolution	Typical Use
B1	Coastal/Aerosol	0.43–0.45 µm	30 m	Coastal, aerosol, shallow water
B2	Blue	0.45–0.51 µm	30 m	Water, visible composites
B3	Green	0.53–0.59 µm	30 m	Vegetation/water discrimination
B4	Red	0.64–0.67 µm	30 m	Vegetation indices
B5	NIR	0.85–0.88 µm	30 m	Vegetation, water boundary
B6	SWIR 1	1.57–1.65 µm	30 m	Moisture, burn severity
B7	SWIR 2	2.11–2.29 µm	30 m	Minerals, burn, moisture
B8	Panchromatic	0.50–0.68 µm	15 m	Pan sharpening
B9	Cirrus	1.36–1.38 µm	30 m	Cirrus detection
B10	TIR 1	10.60–11.19 µm	100 m native*	Surface temperature
B11	TIR 2	11.50–12.51 µm	100 m native*	Thermal retrieval / split-window research

* Standard distributed Landsat products commonly resample thermal data to the 30 m grid, but the TIRS native ground sampling is coarser. The metadata should preserve this distinction.

Recommended catalog products

Collection 2 Level-2 Surface Reflectance.
Collection 2 Level-2 Surface Temperature where generated.
Level-1 only when the user explicitly needs radiance/TOA processing or custom correction.

Good analysis targets

NDVI/EVI, burn severity, water indices, land-cover classification, surface temperature, urban heat, geology and long-term change detection.

10. Sentinel-1 — C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar

5.405 GHzC-band

Day / nightIllumination independent

All-weatherCloud penetrating

HH/HV/VV/VHPolarization options

Sentinel-1 supports several imaging modes. Resolution and swath depend on mode and product. The iTSensing catalog should expose product type and polarization explicitly, not only the mission name.

Mode	Concept	Typical Role	Catalog Notes
SM — Stripmap	High-resolution strip imaging	Selected areas	Less common for global systematic land acquisition
IW — Interferometric Wide Swath	TOPS wide-swath SAR	Main land mode	Common GRD/SLC source for land and InSAR workflows
EW — Extra Wide Swath	Wider coverage	Sea ice, maritime	Lower spatial detail than narrow modes
WV — Wave	Small imagettes	Ocean wave spectra	Not a normal continuous scene

Product levels

SLC: complex amplitude + phase; required for interferometry/coherence workflows.
GRD: detected ground-range product; easier for backscatter visualization and thematic analysis.

Recommended iTSensing handling

Sentinel-1 GRD
→ orbit / border noise / thermal noise as needed
→ radiometric calibration
→ terrain correction
→ sigma0 / gamma0 backscatter
→ COG + statistics.json

Sentinel-1 SLC
→ preserve complex source
→ use dedicated InSAR pipeline

6. Sentinel-2 — Multispectral Instrument (MSI)

13 bandsMSI

10 / 20 / 60 mSpatial resolutions

290 kmSwath

5-day classConstellation revisit

Band	Name	Center	Resolution
B1	Coastal aerosol	443 nm	60 m
B2	Blue	490 nm	10 m
B3	Green	560 nm	10 m
B4	Red	665 nm	10 m
B5	Red Edge 1	705 nm	20 m
B6	Red Edge 2	740 nm	20 m
B7	Red Edge 3	783 nm	20 m
B8	NIR	842 nm	10 m
B8A	Narrow NIR	865 nm	20 m
B9	Water vapour	945 nm	60 m
B10	Cirrus	1375 nm	60 m
B11	SWIR 1	1610 nm	20 m
B12	SWIR 2	2190 nm	20 m

Preferred product

Level-2A Surface Reflectance for most downstream analysis. Level-1C TOA reflectance remains useful when custom atmospheric correction is explicitly required.

Important processing rule

Do not silently resample all bands to 10 m and pretend they have equal native information content. Resampling is useful for computation, but the metadata should retain original 10/20/60 m band resolution.

7. MODIS — Terra / Aqua

36 bandsVIS to TIR

250 / 500 / 1000 mNative resolution groups

2330 kmVery wide swath

Near-dailyGlobal observation class

MODIS is a multi-domain mission supporting land, atmosphere and ocean applications. The same sensor family includes many Level-2/3/4 science products, so catalog search should show the product short name, not only “MODIS”.

Band	Spectral Range	Resolution	Primary Design Use
1	620–670 nm	250 m	Land/cloud boundaries
2	841–876 nm	250 m	Land/cloud boundaries
3	459–479 nm	500 m	Land/cloud properties
4	545–565 nm	500 m	Land/cloud properties
5	1230–1250 nm	500 m	Land/cloud properties
6	1628–1652 nm	500 m	Land/cloud properties
7	2105–2155 nm	500 m	Land/cloud properties
8	405–420 nm	1 km	Ocean colour
9	438–448 nm	1 km	Ocean colour
10	483–493 nm	1 km	Ocean colour
11	526–536 nm	1 km	Ocean colour
12	546–556 nm	1 km	Ocean colour
13	662–672 nm	1 km	Ocean colour / chlorophyll
14	673–683 nm	1 km	Ocean colour / chlorophyll
15	743–753 nm	1 km	Ocean colour
16	862–877 nm	1 km	Ocean colour / aerosol
17	890–920 nm	1 km	Atmospheric water vapour
18	931–941 nm	1 km	Atmospheric water vapour
19	915–965 nm	1 km	Atmospheric water vapour
20	3.660–3.840 µm	1 km	Surface/cloud temperature
21	3.929–3.989 µm	1 km	Fire / surface temperature
22	3.929–3.989 µm	1 km	Cloud/surface temperature
23	4.020–4.080 µm	1 km	Cloud/surface temperature
24	4.433–4.498 µm	1 km	Atmospheric temperature
25	4.482–4.549 µm	1 km	Atmospheric temperature
26	1.360–1.390 µm	1 km	Cirrus
27	6.535–6.895 µm	1 km	Water vapour
28	7.175–7.475 µm	1 km	Water vapour
29	8.400–8.700 µm	1 km	Cloud properties
30	9.580–9.880 µm	1 km	Ozone
31	10.780–11.280 µm	1 km	Cloud/surface temperature
32	11.770–12.270 µm	1 km	Cloud/surface temperature
33	13.185–13.485 µm	1 km	Cloud-top altitude
34	13.485–13.785 µm	1 km	Cloud-top altitude
35	13.785–14.085 µm	1 km	Cloud-top altitude
36	14.085–14.385 µm	1 km	Cloud-top altitude

Typical open-data product families for iTSensing

Surface reflectance (e.g. Terra/Aqua land products).
Vegetation indices and land cover.
Land surface temperature.
Ocean colour / chlorophyll / SST from ocean products.
Aerosol, clouds and atmospheric products.

Format note: many MODIS archive products are HDF-EOS. iTSensing conversion requires a GDAL runtime with the needed HDF/HDF-EOS support; inability to read HDF is a runtime dependency problem, not a data-product failure.

8. ASTER — Terra

14 spectral bandsVNIR + SWIR + TIR

15 mVNIR

30 mSWIR

90 mTIR

Band	Spectral Range	Resolution	Subsystem
1	0.52–0.60 µm	15 m	VNIR
2	0.63–0.69 µm	15 m	VNIR
3N	0.78–0.86 µm	15 m	VNIR nadir
3B	0.78–0.86 µm	15 m	VNIR backward stereo
4	1.600–1.700 µm	30 m	SWIR
5	2.145–2.185 µm	30 m	SWIR
6	2.185–2.225 µm	30 m	SWIR
7	2.235–2.285 µm	30 m	SWIR
8	2.295–2.365 µm	30 m	SWIR
9	2.360–2.430 µm	30 m	SWIR
10	8.125–8.475 µm	90 m	TIR
11	8.475–8.825 µm	90 m	TIR
12	8.925–9.275 µm	90 m	TIR
13	10.25–10.95 µm	90 m	TIR
14	10.95–11.65 µm	90 m	TIR

Strengths

Geology/mineral mapping through SWIR/TIR heritage data.
Thermal analysis and volcanology.
Along-track stereoscopy using 3N/3B for elevation products.

iTSensing note

ASTER products may arrive as HDF. Preserve subsystem resolution and product level. The catalog should distinguish Level-1 radiance from higher-level surface radiance, temperature, emissivity or DEM products.

9. ECOSTRESS — ISS Thermal Radiometer

ISS platformNon-sun-synchronous sampling

70 mCommon science-product resolution

5 TIR bands~8–12.5 µm

+ 1 auxiliary~1.6 µm band

ECOSTRESS is optimized for plant temperature, water stress, evapotranspiration and surface energy applications. The irregular ISS overpass timing is scientifically valuable because it samples different times of day.

11. ALOS / ALOS-2 — PALSAR / PALSAR-2

L-band~1.27 GHz / ~23.6 cm heritage

SARCloud independent

PolarimetricMode dependent

25 mOpen global mosaic product

ALOS PALSAR and ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 are long-wavelength SAR systems particularly valuable for forest structure, biomass, land cover and surface deformation.

Two different catalog concepts

Collection	Meaning	Resolution	Use
Standard scene products	Acquisition-level SAR products	Mode dependent; finer than global mosaic in selected modes	SAR processing / detailed studies
JAXA Global Mosaic	Annual, ortho/slope-corrected Gamma-0 backscatter mosaic	~25 m	Forest/global land monitoring

The JAXA global 25 m mosaics provide HH/HV backscatter for PALSAR/PALSAR-2 years depending on mission coverage and are analysis-ready compared with raw SAR scenes.

12. NISAR — NASA–ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar

L-band24 cm wavelength

S-band9.4 cm wavelength

242 kmL-SAR swath capability

12 daysExact-repeat class

NISAR carries two SAR instruments. NASA's L-SAR provides the principal global science observations; ISRO's S-SAR provides complementary coverage over designated regions.

Spatial capability

NASA states L-SAR capability around 7 m along-track and approximately 2–8 m cross-track depending on mode, with a ~242 km swath. Distributed science products may be posted at product-specific pixel spacing, so the catalog should show the actual product resolution rather than one mission-wide number.

Science

Earth deformation and earthquakes.
Glaciers and ice sheets.
Forest disturbance and ecosystem structure.
Agriculture and soil-moisture-related applications.
InSAR/coherence and change detection.

Open-data policy: NASA states NISAR L- and S-band science data are freely available/open to the public. This makes NISAR strategically important for the iTSensing SAR catalog.

13. ESA Biomass — P-band Polarimetric SAR

435 MHzP-band centre frequency

~69 cmVery long wavelength class

Full polarimetryMission capability

Open since 2026Operational data access

ESA Biomass is the first spaceborne P-band SAR mission, designed primarily to measure forest woody biomass, height/structure and carbon-related variables. The long wavelength penetrates deeper into forest canopies than shorter-wavelength operational SAR systems.

Mission relevance

Above-ground biomass and carbon stock.
Forest height/structure through polarimetric interferometric/tomographic phases.
Forest disturbance and regrowth.
Secondary investigations of ice, subsurface geology in dry regions and topography.

Biomass launched 29 April 2025. ESA announced the mission fully commissioned and open to users in January 2026. Because product formats and higher-level releases evolve during early operations, iTSensing should record exact product type/version in the catalog.

14. EMIT — Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation

Imaging spectroscopyHyperspectral

60 mNative spatial resolution

381–2493 nmVSWIR spectral range

~7.5 nmSpectral sampling/resolution class

EMIT is mounted on the International Space Station. The Level-2A reflectance product contains approximately 285 surface-reflectance bands, ideal for the planned iTSensing Hyperspectral toolbox.

Recommended iTSensing product

EMIT L2A Reflectance
→ preserve wavelengths
→ preserve FWHM / good-band mask / geolocation
→ orthorectified or geolocated raster representation
→ multi-band COG where practical
→ .statistics.json
→ Hyperspectral tools

Best applications

Mineral identification, spectral libraries, material mapping, vegetation traits, surface composition, spectral unmixing, SAM/SID and other imaging-spectroscopy workflows.

Do not treat EMIT band numbers as sufficient metadata. Wavelength, FWHM, scale/offset, bad bands and product level are fundamental.

15. Sentinel-3 OLCI — Ocean and Land Colour Instrument

21 bandsOcean-colour optimized

300 mAll OLCI bands

1270 kmSwath class

400–1020 nmSpectral coverage

Band	Center	Resolution	Typical Scientific Role
Oa01	400 nm	300 m	Aerosol / ocean colour
Oa02	412.5 nm	300 m	Yellow substance / atmospheric correction
Oa03	442.5 nm	300 m	Chlorophyll absorption / blue
Oa04	490 nm	300 m	Blue-green ocean colour
Oa05	510 nm	300 m	Chlorophyll / water
Oa06	560 nm	300 m	Green reflectance
Oa07	620 nm	300 m	Sediment / chlorophyll
Oa08	665 nm	300 m	Chlorophyll absorption
Oa09	673.75 nm	300 m	Chlorophyll fluorescence shoulder
Oa10	681.25 nm	300 m	Chlorophyll fluorescence peak
Oa11	708.75 nm	300 m	Red edge / chlorophyll
Oa12	753.75 nm	300 m	Vegetation / O₂ continuum
Oa13	761.25 nm	300 m	O₂ A absorption
Oa14	764.375 nm	300 m	O₂ A absorption
Oa15	767.5 nm	300 m	O₂ A absorption
Oa16	778.75 nm	300 m	Atmospheric / vegetation
Oa17	865 nm	300 m	Aerosol / vegetation
Oa18	885 nm	300 m	Water vapour / aerosol
Oa19	900 nm	300 m	Water vapour / land
Oa20	940 nm	300 m	Water vapour absorption
Oa21	1020 nm	300 m	Aerosol correction

Applications

Chlorophyll-a, ocean colour, NDCI/MCI-type analyses, suspended matter, turbidity, water quality, algal blooms, atmospheric correction, vegetation and coastal monitoring.

iTSensing product rule

OLCI native products are commonly NetCDF/SAFE structures. Convert only the required variables/bands to COG while retaining flags and geophysical units. A Level-2 geophysical product should not be relabeled as generic “reflectance”.

16. Sentinel-3 SLSTR — Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer

Dual viewNadir + oblique

500 mSolar reflectance bands

1 kmThermal bands

SST / LSTCore mission use

Channel	Approx. Center	Resolution	Role
S1	0.555 µm	500 m	Visible / green
S2	0.659 µm	500 m	Visible / red
S3	0.865 µm	500 m	NIR
S4	1.375 µm	500 m	Cirrus
S5	1.61 µm	500 m	SWIR
S6	2.25 µm	500 m	SWIR
S7	3.74 µm	1 km	MWIR / thermal
S8	10.85 µm	1 km	TIR / SST-LST
S9	12.0 µm	1 km	TIR / SST-LST
F1	3.74 µm	1 km	Fire channel
F2	10.85 µm	1 km	Fire channel

Applications

Sea Surface Temperature, Land Surface Temperature, thermal fronts, fire detection, clouds, ocean/land thermal monitoring and synergy with OLCI.

For SST/LST, prefer validated Level-2 products where available instead of reimplementing split-window coefficients generically from Level-1 brightness temperatures.

17. Sentinel-3 SRAL — Important Non-Image Note

Sentinel-3 also carries the SRAL radar altimeter. It measures along-track ocean/ice surface topography rather than producing a normal 2-D optical image.

Natural data model

SRAL NetCDF / SAFE
→ measurement time + latitude + longitude
→ sea-surface height / range / wave-related variables
→ quality flags
→ point / track layer

Optional later analysis:
Altimetry track
→ interpolation / gridding
→ COG + statistics.json

iTSensing design: keep SRAL acquisition support separate/pending rather than forcing it into the same raster Finder path used by OLCI/SLSTR. Gridding should be an explicit analysis.

18. Sentinel-5P — TROPOMI

8 spectral bandsInstrument channels

267–2389 nmUV to SWIR coverage

~2600 kmSwath

Daily classGlobal atmospheric coverage

Spectral Group	Range	Typical Products
UV	~267–400 nm	Ozone, SO₂, aerosol-related retrievals
VIS	~400–499 nm	NO₂ and cloud/air-quality retrievals
NIR	~661–786 nm	Cloud / O₂ related retrieval support
SWIR	~2300–2389 nm	CO / CH₄-related atmospheric retrievals

Current Level-2 pixel size varies by product and processing history; many products are in the several-kilometre range. The catalog should read resolution from each product rather than hard-coding one number.

Main Level-2 concepts

NO₂, O₃, SO₂, CO, CH₄, HCHO, aerosols, clouds and related atmospheric composition products.

19. Sentinel-4 — Geostationary Air-Quality Spectrometer

MTG-S hostNot a standalone free-flying satellite

GeostationaryEurope-focused

~HourlyAir-quality observations

UVNUV–VIS–NIR spectrometer

Sentinel-4 is an instrument carried on Meteosat Third Generation Sounder satellites. It is designed for frequent atmospheric composition observations over Europe and surrounding regions.

Target products

NO₂, O₃, SO₂, formaldehyde, glyoxal, aerosols and supporting cloud products. Its main advantage over polar-orbiting atmospheric sensors is high temporal frequency.

For the iTSensing UI, label the source clearly as Sentinel-4 / MTG-S so users understand that Sentinel-4 is the Copernicus atmospheric instrument hosted on a meteorological satellite.

20. Sentinel-6 — Poseidon-4 Radar Altimetry

Radar altimeterPoseidon-4

SSHSea Surface Height

HsSignificant Wave Height

Wind speedOcean surface

Sentinel-6 continues the reference altimetry record for global mean sea level and ocean topography. Poseidon-4 provides high-precision radar-ranging measurements from which SSH, significant wave height and ocean wind-speed products are derived.

Representation in iTSensing

Like SRAL, Sentinel-6 is naturally along-track. The native altimetry time series should be preserved, with optional explicit gridding when users need a raster.

21. CBERS-4

INPE / CRESDABrazil–China mission

MUX20 m multispectral

WFI~64 m wide field

PanMUX / IRSAdditional cameras

Key cameras

Camera	Spectral Role	Resolution Class	Swath / Use
MUX	Blue, Green, Red, NIR	20 m	~120 km; land mapping
WFI	Visible + NIR	~64 m	Very wide swath; rapid land/vegetation monitoring
PanMUX	Panchromatic + multispectral configuration	High-resolution class; product-specific	Detail mapping
IRS	Infrared / thermal heritage sensor	Coarser	Specialized IR applications

The current INPE STAC catalog exposes CBERS collections separately by sensor. iTSensing should preserve that sensor name in the asset record.

22. CBERS-4A

WPM2 m PAN / 8 m MS

MUX16 m MS

WFI55 m MS

Visible + NIRLand imaging

Camera	Bands	Resolution	Swath	Typical Revisit
WPM	Panchromatic + Blue/Green/Red/NIR	2 m PAN, 8 m MS	~92 km	~31-day nadir cycle; pointing increases access
MUX	Blue/Green/Red/NIR	16 m	~120 km	~31-day class
WFI	Blue/Green/Red/NIR	55 m	~684 km	~5 days

CBERS-4A is especially useful because it combines very wide WFI monitoring with substantially finer WPM imagery in one open-data mission family.

23. Amazônia-1 — WFI

Brazil / INPEMission

4 bandsBlue, Green, Red, NIR

~60–64 mSpatial resolution depending product description

~850 kmVery wide swath class

Amazônia-1 is optimized for frequent wide-area land observation, especially forest and agricultural monitoring. INPE documentation describes WFI coverage with approximately 64 m nadir resolution and about 850 km across-track coverage; some processed/STAC products are distributed on approximately 60–64 m grids.

Band family

Band	Approximate Range	Main Use
Blue	~0.45–0.52 µm	Water/atmosphere/visible composite
Green	~0.52–0.59 µm	Vegetation/visible composite
Red	~0.63–0.69 µm	Vegetation indices
NIR	~0.77–0.89 µm	Vegetation, water separation

Preferred iTSensing product

Use INPE's orthorectified Surface Reflectance/COG collection when available in the catalog, rather than redoing atmospheric correction from DN unless specifically requested.

24. Recommended Default Product Selection in iTSensing

Mission	Default User-Friendly Product	Why
Landsat 8/9	Collection 2 Level-2	Surface Reflectance / Surface Temperature science-ready products.
Sentinel-1	GRD for general use; SLC for InSAR	Avoid forcing complex SAR into ordinary raster workflow.
Sentinel-2	Level-2A	Surface Reflectance + scene classification/quality support.
Sentinel-3 OLCI	L2 ocean/land geophysical product or L1 when custom processing is required	Scientific units are more useful than raw radiance for many ocean workflows.
Sentinel-3 SLSTR	L2 SST/LST where available	Validated temperature retrieval preferred.
MODIS	Product-specific L2/L3 science product	MODIS is a product ecosystem, not one imagery type.
ASTER	Orthorectified/radiance or L2 temperature/emissivity depending task	Keep VNIR/SWIR/TIR semantics.
EMIT	L2A Reflectance	Direct input to hyperspectral analysis.
ECOSTRESS	L2 LST/Emissivity or higher science product	Direct thermal science use.
ALOS	25 m Gamma-0 mosaic for broad land/forest monitoring; standard scene for detailed SAR	Different use cases require different products.
NISAR	Analysis-ready radar product matching task	Keep phase-capable products for InSAR tasks.
Biomass	Exact released Level-1/2 product with version recorded	Mission is newly operational and product availability evolves.
CBERS / Amazônia	INPE orthorectified Surface Reflectance/COG when available	Fastest integration into GIS/raster analysis.
Sentinel-5P / 4	Level-2 geophysical variable	Users want NO₂/O₃/etc., not only raw spectra.
Sentinel-6 / SRAL	Native geophysical track product	Do not force altimetry into image format.

25. Important Limitations & UI Rules

Resolution belongs to the product/sensor, not just the satellite. One mission can have multiple sensors and resolutions.
Product level must be visible. DN, radiance, TOA reflectance, surface reflectance and geophysical Level-2 products are not interchangeable.
Native format is not always GeoTIFF. SAFE, NetCDF4, HDF/HDF-EOS and complex SAR formats are normal.
Atmospheric and ocean products need quality flags. Do not discard flags simply to simplify conversion.
SAR has phase and polarization semantics. A grayscale PNG preview is not an adequate representation of the science data.
Hyperspectral requires wavelength metadata. A 285-band TIFF without wavelengths is scientifically incomplete.
Altimetry is along-track. Store as vector/time series first; grid only when explicitly requested.
“Open data” does not always mean anonymous download. Providers may require a free account/token even when the data licence is open.
Collection/version matters. MODIS, Landsat, Sentinel, Biomass and other providers update processors and collections. Store collection/processor version in metadata.

26. Official / Primary References

Documentation policy: provider specifications and processing collections can change. iTSensing should keep a machine-readable sensor/product registry, but this HTML remains the human technical reference. Product-version fields should always be read from provider metadata at ingestion time.

1. Catalog Scope

2. Quick Comparison

3. Data-Type Taxonomy

Optical Multispectral

Thermal

SAR

Hyperspectral

Ocean Colour / Atmosphere

Altimetry

4. Recommended iTSensing Processing Contract

4.1 Do not flatten all missions into one generic raster

5. Landsat 8 / Landsat 9 — OLI/TIRS

Recommended catalog products

Good analysis targets

10. Sentinel-1 — C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar

Product levels

Recommended iTSensing handling

6. Sentinel-2 — Multispectral Instrument (MSI)

Preferred product

Important processing rule

7. MODIS — Terra / Aqua

Typical open-data product families for iTSensing

8. ASTER — Terra

Strengths

iTSensing note

9. ECOSTRESS — ISS Thermal Radiometer

Recommended products

11. ALOS / ALOS-2 — PALSAR / PALSAR-2

Two different catalog concepts

12. NISAR — NASA–ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar

Spatial capability

Science

13. ESA Biomass — P-band Polarimetric SAR

Mission relevance

14. EMIT — Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation

Recommended iTSensing product

Best applications

15. Sentinel-3 OLCI — Ocean and Land Colour Instrument

Applications

iTSensing product rule

16. Sentinel-3 SLSTR — Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer

Applications

17. Sentinel-3 SRAL — Important Non-Image Note

Natural data model

18. Sentinel-5P — TROPOMI

Main Level-2 concepts

19. Sentinel-4 — Geostationary Air-Quality Spectrometer

Target products

20. Sentinel-6 — Poseidon-4 Radar Altimetry

Representation in iTSensing

21. CBERS-4

Key cameras

22. CBERS-4A

23. Amazônia-1 — WFI

Band family

Preferred iTSensing product

24. Recommended Default Product Selection in iTSensing

25. Important Limitations & UI Rules

26. Official / Primary References