PRISMA

PRISMA (PRecursore IperSpettrale della Missione Applicativa) is an Italian hyperspectral Earth observation satellite operated by the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI) [^eoportal-prisma]. The satellite was launched on 22 March 2019 aboard a Vega VV14 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana [^eoportal-prisma], and entered routine operations in October 2019 after a six-month commissioning phase.

The spacecraft was built by Carlo Gavazzi Space (CGS, subsequently OHB Italia) as prime contractor on an evolved MITA platform bus, with the hyperspectral payload electronics supplied by Selex ES (now part of Leonardo) [^eoportal-prisma]. It flies a 614-615 km sun-synchronous orbit with a 10:30 local time descending node and a 29-day exact repeat cycle. Tasking is supported via roll manoeuvres yielding a 7-day relook capability.

The primary instrument is the PRISMA Hyperspectral Camera (HYC), a dual-detector pushbroom imaging spectrometer covering 400-2505 nm in 239 contiguous channels: 66 VNIR channels (400-1010 nm) and 173 SWIR channels (920-2505 nm), each at up to 12 nm spectral resolution and 30 m ground sampling distance over a 30 km swath [^eoportal-prisma]. A co-aligned panchromatic camera provides a single 400-700 nm channel at 5 m GSD. The VNIR channel peak SNR reaches approximately 600 at 0.65 um; SWIR SNR exceeds 400 at 1.55 um [^eoportal-prisma]. The SWIR range to 2505 nm covers the diagnostic absorption features of clay, carbonate, sulphate, and phyllosilicate minerals used in geological mapping and mineral exploration.

PRISMA products are distributed at levels L0 (raw), L1 (TOA radiometrically and geometrically corrected radiance), L2B (surface reflectance), L2C (atmospherically corrected with constituent maps), and L2D (surface reflectance with enhanced atmospheric correction) [^asi-prisma-en]. Data are freely available to registered users via the ASI CNM Access System at prisma.asi.it. PRISMA became a Copernicus Contributing Mission in June 2022, broadening its integration into the European EO data ecosystem.

The satellite reached its 5-year design life in March 2024 and has continued in extended operations. As of April 2025 ASI confirmed active data acquisition, including nighttime SWIR imaging of gas flares in Venezuela [^asi-gas-flare-2025]. No decommission announcement has been made as of the research date.