The PRISMA mission

PRISMA (PRecursore IperSpettrale della Missione Applicativa) is an innovative Italian Earth Observation mission using a Hyperspectral/Panchromatic instrument based on a pushbroom scanning technique. The PRISMA mission development is completely funded by ASI (Italian Space Agency) and includes the system development program and the related applications and research activities. The system program is in the development phase (ECSS standard C/D phase) in the framework of a contract signed between ASI and an Italian Industries Consortium, including also the system on orbit commissioning. The launch is planned for the beginning of 2018. Thanks to the Low Earth, Sun Synchronous orbit placement, PRISMA will acquire up to 200.000 km ² of daily Panchromatic/hyperspectral images within an Area of interest bounded by 180°W÷180°E - 70°S÷70°N, supporting many earth observation applications with relevant data. The Italian Science Community has been involved both in supporting the system development program, mainly for Calibration and Validation activities and algorithm developments, and in promoting research and applications based on Panchromatic/Hyperspectral remote sensed data.