# Advanced Himawari Imager
*sensor . products*

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.

## Specifications
- **product status**: operational
- **deployment context**: orbital
- **manufacturer**: mitsubishi-electric
- **sensor**: {"instrument_family":"passive-optical","measurement_principle":"passive","spectral_range_nm":{"min":470,"max":13310},"spectral_band_count":16,"gsd_m":{"native":500},"channels":[{"name":"VIS/NIR/SWIR","spectral_range_nm":{"min":470,"max":2300},"spectral_band_count":6,"gsd_m":{"native":500}},{"name":"MWIR/TIR","spectral_range_nm":{"min":3900,"max":13300},"spectral_band_count":10,"gsd_m":{"native":2000}}]}
- **entity type**: sensor
- **last verified date**: 2026-06-15
- **verified by**: agency-doc
- **claim status**: agency-sourced
- **provider**: mitsubishi-electric
- **attributes**: {"kind":"sensor","product_status":"operational","deployment_context":"orbital","manufacturer":"mitsubishi-electric","description":"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":"{\"instrument_family\":\"passive-optical\",\"measurement_principle\":\"passive\",\"spectral_range_nm\":{\"min\":470,\"max\":13310},\"spectral_band_count\":16,\"gsd_m\":{\"native\":500},\"channels\":[{\"name\":\"VIS/NIR/SWIR\",\"spectral_range_nm\":{\"min\":470,\"max\":2300},\"spectral_band_count\":6,\"gsd_m\":{\"native\":500}},{\"name\":\"MWIR/TIR\",\"spectral_range_nm\":{\"min\":3900,\"max\":13300},\"spectral_band_count\":10,\"gsd_m\":{\"native\":2000}}]}"}
- **relevance**: in-scope

## Editorial
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.[^businesswire-ahi-2015][^sensors-systems-ahi][^jma-ahi-spec]

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.[^jma-ahi-spec][^wmo-ahi] 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.[^jma-ahi-spec]

AHI supports a range of operational meteorological products across the Asia-Pacific region.[^wmo-ahi] 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.[^jma-ahi-spec][^businesswire-ahi-2015]

## Compositional position
- himawari-9 (missions) --[mission_payloads]--> Advanced Himawari Imager
- himawari-8 (missions) --[mission_payloads]--> Advanced Himawari Imager

## Sources
- [jma-ahi-spec] | JMA Meteorological Satellite Center - Himawari-8/9 AHI specifications | https://www.data.jma.go.jp/mscweb/en/himawari89/space_segment/spsg_ahi.html | tier=agency-doc | accessed=2026-06-15
- [wmo-ahi] | WMO OSCAR instrument record: Advanced Himawari Imager | https://space.oscar.wmo.int/instruments/view/ahi | tier=agency-doc | accessed=2026-06-15
- [businesswire-ahi-2015] | First images with Exelis AHI on Himawari-8 - Business Wire | https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150108006181/en/First-images-taken-with-advanced-Exelis-imager-on-Japanese-weather-satellite-released | tier=operator-press | accessed=2026-06-15
- [sensors-systems-ahi] | Japanese Weather Satellite to Launch First Exelis Advanced Imager - Sensors and Systems | https://sensorsandsystems.com/japanese-weather-satellite-set-to-launch-first-exelis-advanced-imager/ | tier=operator-press | accessed=2026-06-15

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Source: https://eo-atlas.org/products/sensor/ahi
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