CHRIS (the Compact High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer) is a new imaging spectrometer that was launched in October 2001 on board a novel space platform called PROBA (Project for On Board Autonomy).
CHRIS was developed by the United Kingdom company Sira Electro-Optics Ltd. with support from the BNSC (British National Space Centre). The scientific case to secure the funding for CHRIS was developed by Professor Michael Barnsley, of the University of Wales at Swansea, and Dr Jeff Settle, of the Environemntal Systems Science centre at the University of Reading. The core mission centres on sites identified in this exercise, principally for the study of atmospheric aerosols and for the land surface. Coastal and inland water studies have been added to this core activity, under the guidance of Dr Sam Lavender, of the University of Plymouth.
Following an Announcement of Opportunity (AO) from the European Space Agency, a number of other locations have been added to the list of sites over which it is hoped to obtain CHRIS imagery. Altogther, about 60 groups now have plans to use CHRIS data for a range of environemntal studies. Details of these AO experiments can be found in the Acquisition Zone, and the list of AO experimenters on the contacts page.
PROBA's development has been led by the Verhaert consortium supported by the European Space Agency. Frederic Teston of ESA is the project manager for the mission. In addition to CHRIS, a number of other instruments are deployed on PROBA.
Page last changed 9
March 2002