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• Earth observation instruments and systems
• Pointing and tracking sensors, and other camera-type instruments
• Study and testing of advanced imaging sensors including radiation effects
• Payload data handling electronics
• Exobiology and botany facilities for microgravity payloads
• X-ray detectors

Our two most recent programmes for Earth observation missions are described here.

For more details of these and Sira's many other activities in Space and elsewhere, visit our web site at www.sira.co.uk

EARTH IMAGING
CHRIS (Compact High-Resolution Imaging Spectrometer) is being built by Sira with support from the British National Space Centre. Consuming less than 10 W of power and weighing under 15 kg, this instrument is planned to be launched on an agile, small satellite in July 2000.

Designed to take advantage of the latest capabilities of agile, small platforms to deliver superior Earth images and steering to observe selectable ground targets well outside its nominal field of view, CHRIS will image the Earth in a 19 km swathe with a spatial resolution of 25 m and a spectral resolution better than 12 nm.

CHRIS operates over the visible/near infrared 400 nm to 1050 nm, but is capable of being developed to include the short wave infrared range up to 2500 nm. At full spatial resolution, 19 wavebands will be available, selectable in flight, with more wavebands available at reduced spatial resolution.

CHRIS will be used mainly to provide images of land areas, and will be of interest particularly in environmental monitoring, recording features of land vegetation and validating techniques for precision farming, regional yield forecasting and forest inventories.

GLOBAL OZONE WATCHING
Sira has recently delivered electro-optical subsystems for a new, space-based, ozone monitoring instrument (GOMOS). This is being built by Matra-Marconi, France, and is one of the major payloads for ESA's environmental monitoring satellite ENVISAT, due for launch in 1999.

GOMOS uses the light from the stars as point sources for spectral analysis of the atmosphere while they are setting below the horizon. The location of each measurement through the atmosphere and stratosphere will be known to +/-30 m and the new instrument will be able to measure ozone concentration changes down to 0.1% per annum.

GOMOS will produce as much data as 360 ground-based stations with detailed maps of ozone concentration covering the whole globe, daily updated for all altitudes between 15 and 60 km above the Earth's surface. GOMOS will therefore be a key instrument in the precise monitoring of long-term trends in the amount and distribution of ozone around the Earth.