Geosynchronous Littoral Imaging and Monitoring Radiometer
| Names | Geosynchronous Littoral Imaging and Monitoring Radiometer |
|---|---|
| Mission type | Earth observation; ocean color remote sensing |
| Operator | NASA |
| COSPAR ID | {{#property:P247}} |
| Website | science |
| Mission duration | 2 years planned |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft type | Hosted payload instrument |
| Manufacturer | Raytheon Intelligence and Space |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 2026-2027 (planned) |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric |
| Regime | Geostationary |
| Longitude | 88°W to 108°W (planned) |
| Instruments | |
| GLIMR Hyperspectral Instrument; Landmark Imager | |
Earth Venture Instrument | |
GLIMR, short for Geosynchronous Littoral Imaging and Monitoring Radiometer, is a planned NASA Earth observation instrument for ocean color remote sensing. It is intended to make high frequency hyperspectral measurements of ocean biology, chemistry and ecology from geostationary orbit, with principal observing regions including the Gulf of Mexico, the southeastern coast of the United States and the Amazon River plume.[1][2]
NASA selected GLIMR in 2019 as part of its fifth Earth Venture Instrument solicitation. The mission team is led by principal investigator Joseph Salisbury at the University of New Hampshire. NASA announced an award of US$107.9 million and described the instrument as a hosted payload for which the agency would provide access to space.[2] NOAA has described GLIMR as the United States' first geostationary ocean color platform.[3]
Mission objectives
GLIMR is designed to observe rapidly changing coastal and marine processes that can be difficult to capture from low Earth orbit. Its planned observations include phytoplankton physiology, growth and bloom evolution, river-to-sea fluxes of material, harmful algal blooms such as Karenia brevis, and oil spills or seeps in the Gulf of Mexico and other selected coastal regions of North and South America.[4][5]
The mission is intended to support coastal ecosystem sustainability, resource management and hazard response. NASA has stated that the instrument will be able to monitor a wide area centered on the Gulf of Mexico for up to 15 hours a day, allowing repeated views of events such as bloom life cycles and oil spill movement that may not be captured by a single daily pass of a polar-orbiting satellite.[2]
Instrument and orbit
GLIMR is a hyperspectral ocean color radiometer that will measure reflected sunlight from optically complex coastal waters in narrow wavebands.[2] According to eoPortal, the instrument will observe from 340 to 1040 nm with 252 spectral bands and sampling at intervals of less than 5 nm. The planned median spatial resolution is about 391 m, with about 328 m resolution over the Gulf of Mexico and about 500 m over coastal and continental parts of the United States.[5]
The mission is planned for geostationary orbit above the Gulf of Mexico, at an altitude of about 36,000 km and between 88°W and 108°W longitude.[5] The GLIMR instrument includes a telescope on a two-axis gimbal for scanning regions of interest. A single-band Landmark Imager is planned to support navigation and image registration.[5] NASA lists the mission as a future instrument with a planned launch in 2026–2027.[1]
Scientific and operational applications
A 2023 assessment published in Marine Pollution Bulletin found that GLIMR's geostationary viewpoint could improve monitoring of United States coastal waters by increasing temporal coverage and reducing uncertainty in tracking water quality events such as harmful algal blooms and oil spills. The study reported a planned nadir spatial pixel resolution of 300 m, a median field-of-regard pixel resolution of 391 m, and daily imaging periods of 6 to 12 hours for water quality measures, depending on sun glint conditions.[6]
The science data segment is planned to be colocated with the Ocean Biology Processing Group at Goddard Space Flight Center, while science operations are planned to be conducted through the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space at the University of New Hampshire. eoPortal reports that data products are expected to be distributed through NASA's Ocean Biology Distributed Active Archive Center.[5]
See also
- Ocean color
- Harmful algal bloom
- Geostationary orbit
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "GLIMR - NASA Science". NASA Science. NASA. Retrieved June 12, 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "NASA Targets Coastal Ecosystems with New Space Sensor" (Press release). NASA. August 1, 2019. Retrieved June 12, 2026.
- ↑ "Setting the PACE in Ocean Observations: NOAA Incorporating New NASA Science Mission Data into Operational Ocean Color Observations". NESDIS. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. June 4, 2024. Retrieved June 12, 2026.
- ↑ "GLIMR Satellite Mission Summary". CEOS Database. Committee on Earth Observation Satellites. Retrieved June 12, 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 "GLIMR (Geostationary Littoral Imaging and Monitoring Radiometer) - eoPortal". eoPortal. European Space Agency. Retrieved June 12, 2026.
- ↑ Schaeffer, Blake A.; Whitman, Peter; Vandermeulen, Ryan; Hu, Chuanmin; Mannino, Antonio; Salisbury, Joseph; et al. (2023). "Assessing potential of the Geostationary Littoral Imaging and Monitoring Radiometer (GLIMR) for water quality monitoring across the coastal United States". Marine Pollution Bulletin. 196. doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.115558. PMC 10845072 Check
|pmc=value (help). PMID 37757532 Check|pmid=value (help). Retrieved June 12, 2026. Unknown parameter|article-number=ignored (help)
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