Earth Remote Sensing Results from the CUbesat MULtispectral Observing
System, CUMULOS
Abstract
CUMULOS is a tiny three-camera VIS/SWIR/LWIR sensor system flying as a
hosted payload on the NASA/JPL ISARA mission, a 3U CubeSat. The CUMULOS
sensors provide a small-aperture, large field-of-view, remote sensing
payload suitable for testing the performance of passively-cooled
commercial sensors for weather and environmental monitoring missions.
The CUMULOS consists of a 0.4-0.9 µm visible CMOS camera, a 0.9 -1.7 µm
short-wave infrared InGaAs CMOS camera, and a 7.5-13.5 long-wave
infrared VOx microbolometer camera. All three cameras and associated
electronics fit into less than 1U of spacecraft volume and were
accommodated on the ISARA mission on a non-interference basis. CUMULOS
is designed for point-and-stare imaging and acquires almost simultaneous
3-band coverage of regions approximately 200 x 150 kilometers in size,
at ground sample distances from 130 to 400 meters from an orbital
altitude of 450km, 52° inclination. Remote sensing applications being
investigated include: hotspot detection (including fires, gas flares,
and volcanic activity), detection of nighttime lights, cloud cover
detection, surface temperature characterization, and airglow
phenomenology. Operational since June 2018, the sensors have taken
sample daytime and nighttime cloud imagery including, notably, the
detection of airglow-illuminated clouds by the SWIR camera operating in
high-sensitivity mode. The LWIR microbolometer camera provides useful
single-band cloud and earth surface thermal imagery. The visible camera
can provide daytime pictures as well as high-sensitivity nightlights
imagery. The combination of all three cameras working together has
proven quite successful for characterizing nightlights and thermal
hotspots in manner similar to the much larger VIIRS payload that flies
on JPSS, and for researching compact sensor nighttime weather imaging
possibilities. We present example results on nightlights mapping of
urban areas and road networks, detection of gas flares and other
industrial heat sources, detection of urban heat islands, and
demonstrate how the combination of sensors work together to map light
and thermal features of rapidly developing urban areas. CubeSats
sensors, such as CUMULOS, can complement existing of larger space
sensors, such as VIIRS, by acting as testbeds for new spectral bands,
imaging at higher resolutions over smaller fields of view, and flying in
different orbits to measure nightlights signatures at different times
during the night. The CUMULOS is also an engineering test bed for
developing techniques for the calibration of small sensors in space,
demonstrating a calibration and georegistration data pipeline, and
automating CubeSat remote sensing data collection. These experiences,
lessons and procedures will be described as well.