Sensor · Spaceborne

Advanced Himawari Imager

Compiled from public sources on 2026-06-15. Not independently verified by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation.

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Missions → Himawari-9 (Operational) , Himawari-8 (Operational)

Sixteen-band VIS/NIR/SWIR/MWIR/TIR geostationary meteorological imager flown on Himawari-8 and Himawari-9 for weather watch, numerical-weather-prediction support, environmental monitoring, and wind derivation.

Sensor

The Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI) is a 16-band passive optical radiometer flown on Japan Meteorological Agency's Himawari-8 and Himawari-9 geostationary satellites. The AHI instrument was designed and built by Exelis Inc. (Rochester, NY, subsequently acquired by L3Harris Technologies in 2019) under contract to Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, which integrated the spacecraft.^[1]^[2]^[3]

AHI covers 16 spectral bands spanning 0.47 to 13.3 micrometres, with six visible, near-infrared and shortwave infrared bands at a finest spatial resolution of 500 m and ten mid-wave and thermal infrared bands at 2 km resolution.^[3]^[4] The instrument delivers full-disk imagery every 10 minutes and can provide rapid-scan sector images at 2.5-minute intervals, supporting numerical weather prediction, atmospheric motion vector derivation, and severe weather monitoring across the Asia-Pacific region.^[3]

AHI supports a range of operational meteorological products across the Asia-Pacific region.^[4] It builds on the capability of predecessor instruments flown on Japan's MTSAT series (Himawari-6 and Himawari-7) and shares the same 16-band spectral architecture as the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) on NOAA's GOES-R series.^[3]^[1]

Where this fits, supply chain

Compositional position

Himawari-9 ——— this payload

Himawari-8 ——— this payload

this ——— Himawari-9 (Operational) flies on

this ——— Himawari-8 (Operational) flies on

Methods this sensor implements

Demonstrated

Atmospheric motion vectors (AMV)via Himawari-9
JMA and WMO identify AHI cloud and water-vapour tracking for atmospheric motion vector derivation.
Sea-surface temperature retrievalvia Himawari-9
JMA lists detailed sea-surface-temperature data among Himawari-8/9 derived products.
Thermal anomaly detectionvia Himawari-9
AHI MWIR/TIR observations support high-frequency geostationary thermal anomaly and fire monitoring.

Capable, undemonstrated

None on record.

Topics this relates to

Atmospheric Wind Observation Atmospheric motion vectors (AMV)(demonstrated)well suited

Sea surface temperature Sea-surface temperature retrieval(demonstrated)well suited

Ocean heat content Sea-surface temperature retrieval(demonstrated)marginal

Industrial emissions Thermal anomaly detection(demonstrated)well suited

Wildfire Thermal anomaly detection(demonstrated)well suited

Geology and geohazards Thermal anomaly detection(demonstrated)adequate

Air quality Thermal anomaly detection(demonstrated)marginal

Building thermal performance Thermal anomaly detection(demonstrated)marginal

CO2 Thermal anomaly detection(demonstrated)marginal

Disaster damage assessment Thermal anomaly detection(demonstrated)marginal

Economic activity intelligence Thermal anomaly detection(demonstrated)marginal

Illegal and unregulated fishing Thermal anomaly detection(demonstrated)marginal

Oil spills Thermal anomaly detection(demonstrated)marginal

Pipeline integrity Thermal anomaly detection(demonstrated)marginal

Shipping emissions Thermal anomaly detection(demonstrated)marginal

Sources

[1]JMA Meteorological Satellite Center - Himawari-8/9 AHI specificationsagency doc2026-06-15
[2]WMO OSCAR instrument record: Advanced Himawari Imageragency doc2026-06-15
[3]First images with Exelis AHI on Himawari-8 - Business Wireoperator press2026-06-15
[4]Japanese Weather Satellite to Launch First Exelis Advanced Imager - Sensors and Systemsoperator press2026-06-15

Cite https://eo-atlas.org/products/sensor/ahi Markdown twin → Field definitions →