Sensor · Spaceborne

Directional Polarization Camera

Multi-angle, multi-polarization VIS/NIR camera on GF-5 for aerosol and cloud microphysical parameters and BRDF, with 8 wavelengths, three polarization directions at selected bands, 2400 km swath, and 3.5 km resolution.

Sensor

Directional Polarization Camera (DPC) is an operational passive VIS/NIR camera on GF-5 for multi-angle, multi-polarization observations of aerosol properties, cloud microphysical parameters, and bidirectional reflectance distribution function measurements.^[1]^[2] It measures 8 VIS/NIR wavelengths across 443-910 nm, with 14 total channels because selected wavelengths include three polarization measurements.^[1]^[2] Its non-polarized bands are 443, 565, 763, 765, and 910 nm, and its polarized bands are 490, 670, and 865 nm.^[2] The instrument paper reports at least 9 viewing directions, which is central to its multi-angle polarimetry use case over land and cloud scenes.^[2]

The swath and sampling figures remain an unresolved discrepancy between sources: WMO OSCAR records a 2400 km swath with 3.5 km sub-satellite sampling, while Li et al. 2018 reports a 1850 km swath with 3.3 km nadir sampling, so the published figures disagree.^[1]^[3]^[2] Multi-angle polarimetry is demonstrated on Gaofen-5 for DPC.^[1]

Operator pricing

Pricing not publicly listed by operator

Supply chain position

carried by Gaofen-5 (GF-5)

addresses Aerosol and cloud microphysical properties

Methods this sensor implements

Demonstrated

Multi-angle polarimetryvia Gaofen-5 (GF-5)
DPC is a multi-angle, multi-polarization VIS/NIR camera for aerosol/cloud microphysical retrievals.

Capable, undemonstrated

None on record.

Topics this relates to

Aerosol and cloud microphysical properties Multi-angle polarimetry(demonstrated)well suited

Cloud properties Multi-angle polarimetry(demonstrated)adequate

Earth radiation budget Multi-angle polarimetry(demonstrated)marginal

Sources

[1]WMO OSCAR instrument record: DPCagency doc2026-06-16
[2]Directional Polarimetric Camera (DPC): Monitoring aerosol spectral optical properties over land from satellite observationpeer reviewed2026-06-16
[3]CEOS MIM mission summary: GF-5agency doc2026-06-16

Cite https://eo-atlas.org/products/sensor/dpc Markdown twin → Field definitions → Suggest a correction →

How to cite this page

Plain text

Directional Polarization Camera. EO-Atlas, SpectraWorks B.V. https://eo-atlas.org/products/sensor/dpc (CC BY 4.0)

BibTeX

@misc{eoatlas:products:sensor:dpc,
  title = {Directional Polarization Camera},
  author = {{EO-Atlas}},
  publisher = {SpectraWorks B.V.},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
  url = {https://eo-atlas.org/products/sensor/dpc}
}