# Panchromatic and Multi-spectral CCD Camera
*sensor . products*

High-resolution panchromatic and multispectral CCD camera family carried by GF-1, with 2 m panchromatic and 8 m multispectral resolution, VIS/NIR bands, and about 90 km swath in WMO OSCAR.

## Specifications
- **product status**: operational
- **deployment context**: orbital
- **manufacturer**: sast
- **sensor**: {"instrument_family":"passive-optical","measurement_principle":"passive","spectral_range_nm":{"min":450,"max":900},"spectral_band_count":5,"gsd_m":{"native":2},"swath_km":90,"notes":"2 m panchromatic and 8 m multispectral modes; WMO records five VIS/NIR channels including panchromatic."}
- **entity type**: sensor
- **last verified date**: 2026-06-15
- **verified by**: agency-doc
- **claim status**: agency-sourced
- **provider**: sast
- **attributes**: {"kind":"sensor","product_status":"operational","deployment_context":"orbital","manufacturer":"sast","description":"High-resolution panchromatic and multispectral CCD camera family carried by GF-1, with 2 m panchromatic and 8 m multispectral resolution, VIS/NIR bands, and about 90 km swath in WMO OSCAR.","sensor":"{\"instrument_family\":\"passive-optical\",\"measurement_principle\":\"passive\",\"spectral_range_nm\":{\"min\":450,\"max\":900},\"spectral_band_count\":5,\"gsd_m\":{\"native\":2},\"swath_km\":90,\"notes\":\"2 m panchromatic and 8 m multispectral modes; WMO records five VIS/NIR channels including panchromatic.\"}"}
- **relevance**: in-scope

## Editorial
The Panchromatic and Multi-spectral CCD Camera (PMS) is a passive-optical pushbroom instrument using CCD array detectors with time-delay integration (TDI) scanning.[^wmo-pms] The camera operates across five VIS/NIR spectral bands: panchromatic (450-900 nm), blue (450-520 nm), green (520-590 nm), red (630-690 nm), and near-infrared (770-890 nm).[^wmo-pms]

The PMS instrument configuration differs between platforms. On Gaofen-1, two PMS cameras are mounted to provide a combined nadir swath of approximately 69 km, with 2 m panchromatic and 8 m multispectral ground sampling distance and 10-bit data quantization.[^eoportal-gf1] The later Gaofen-1B, Gaofen-1C, and Gaofen-1D satellites, launched in March 2018, each carry a single PMS camera with the same spectral bands and spatial resolution but with 12-bit quantization.[^plos-snowydove] On Gaofen-6, a single PMS camera covers a 90 km swath with the same 2 m panchromatic and 8 m multispectral resolution.[^wmo-pms]

Documented applications include land cover classification, vegetation monitoring, disaster assessment, and biomass estimation.[^wmo-pms]

## Compositional position
- gaofen-1 (missions) --[mission_payloads]--> Panchromatic and Multi-spectral CCD Camera
- gaofen-6 (missions) --[mission_payloads]--> Panchromatic and Multi-spectral CCD Camera

## Sources
- [wmo-pms] | WMO OSCAR instrument record: PMS | https://space.oscar.wmo.int/instruments/view/pms | tier=agency-doc | accessed=2026-06-15
- [eoportal-gf1] | GF-1 (Gaofen-1) - eoPortal mission page | https://www.eoportal.org/satellite-missions/gaofen-1 | tier=community | accessed=2026-06-15
- [skyrocket-gf6] | Gaofen 6 (GF-6) - Gunter's Space Page | https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/gf-6.htm | tier=community | accessed=2026-06-15
- [plos-snowydove] | Snowy Dove: open-source toolkit for Chinese Gaofen series data pre-processing | https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0313584 | tier=peer-reviewed | accessed=2026-06-15
- [usgs-gf1] | USGS Open-File Report 2021-1030B: System Characterization Report on Gaofen-1 | https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/ofr20211030B | tier=agency-doc | accessed=2026-06-14 | published=2021-01-01

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Source: https://eo-atlas.org/products/sensor/pms
Maintainer: SpectraWorks B.V. (CC-BY 4.0)