# Multispectral optical imaging *sensing . methodologies* Passive imaging of reflected sunlight in a small number of discrete spectral bands, including single-band panchromatic, from push-broom, whiskbroom and framing cameras. The base optical imaging method behind land, coastal and atmospheric imagery, from very-high-resolution commercial constellations to moderate-resolution weather and land imagers. Band set, ground sampling distance, tasking, orbit and revisit are attributes of an implementation, not separate methods. ## Specifications - **family**: Multispectral - **requirements envelope**: {"kind":"spectral","spectral_range_nm":{"min":400,"max":2500},"bands_min":1,"daylight_required":true,"cloud_tolerant":false} - **entity type**: methodology - **last verified date**: 2026-10-21 - **verified by**: agency-doc - **claim status**: unclaimed - **technology**: optical-spectral-sensing ## Editorial Multispectral optical imaging is used to map land, water and built surfaces from reflected sunlight recorded in a panchromatic band and a small number of discrete spectral bands [^s2-mission][^usgs-landsat9]. It depends on daylight, on a clear view of the surface, and on reflective bands in the visible, near-infrared and shortwave-infrared range. Planet states that PlanetScope images only above 10 degrees of sun elevation [^planet-docs], and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) cloud mask gives a global cloud fraction of 67 percent [^king-2013-modis-clouds]. Results also shift with sun and viewing geometry [^roy-2016-nbar]. Demonstrated implementations include Sentinel-2 [^s2-mission], Landsat 8 and 9 [^usgs-landsat9], MODIS [^modis-specs] and PlanetScope [^planet-docs]. The output is reflectance imagery rather than spectra. Sentinel-2 delivers top-of-atmosphere reflectance (Level-1C) and surface reflectance (Level-2A) products, and the surface product depends on an atmospheric correction step [^s2-processing]. Thermal infrared bands, such as those on MODIS that extend to 14.385 micrometres, are outside this method, which covers reflective bands only [^modis-specs]. Spatial detail, swath and revisit vary widely between instruments. WorldView-3 records a 0.31 m panchromatic band and 1.24 m visible and near-infrared bands over a 13.1 km swath at nadir [^dg-wv3-datasheet]; ESA lists a 30 cm panchromatic band for Pleiades Neo [^esa-pleiades-neo]. Sentinel-2 records 13 bands at 10, 20 and 60 m over a 290 km swath, with a 5-day revisit when two satellites operate [^s2-mission]. Landsat 9 records eight bands at 30 m and one panchromatic band at 15 m, with a 16-day repeat [^usgs-landsat9]. MODIS pixels range from 250 m to 1 km across a 2330 km swath [^modis-specs]. The Advanced Baseline Imager on the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites R series (GOES-R) scans the full disk every 10 minutes at 0.5 to 2 km [^noaa-abi]. Planet states that PlanetScope covers the landmass near-daily at about 3 m [^planet-docs]. A panchromatic band can be fused with multispectral bands by pansharpening [^vivone-2015]. Published work using these images includes global forest cover change maps [^hansen-2013], global surface water and its long-term changes [^pekel-2016], the state of the world's beaches [^luijendijk-2018], the Global Human Settlement Layer produced from Landsat data [^pesaresi-2016-ghsl], crop and tree species classification with Sentinel-2 [^immitzer-2016], and lithologic mapping with Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) data [^rowan-mars-2003]. Cloud is the main constraint: the MODIS cloud fraction is 55 percent over land [^king-2013-modis-clouds], and ESA states that the Sentinel-2 10:30 overpass time was chosen partly to limit cloud [^s2-mission]. Masking uses tools such as Fmask for Landsat [^zhu-woodcock-2012-fmask] and the Sen2Cor scene classification, which can confuse bright surfaces and mountain snow with cloud [^s2-processing]. A changing solar zenith angle can mimic reflectance change, and Landsat views within about 7.5 degrees of nadir still produce small directional effects [^roy-2016-nbar]. Off-nadir tasking degrades resolution; the WorldView-3 panchromatic ground sampling distance rises from 0.31 m to 0.34 m at 20 degrees [^dg-wv3-datasheet]. Combining sensors needs harmonisation. Sentinel-2 geolocation is 20 m (2 sigma) without ground control points [^s2-mission], and the Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 data set applies co-registration, bidirectional reflectance distribution function normalisation and bandpass adjustment before joint use [^claverie-2018-hls]. Planet documents four bands on Dove Classic and Dove-R and eight on SuperDove, of which six are interoperable with Sentinel-2 bands [^planet-docs]. ## Sources - [s2-mission] | Sentinel-2 mission overview, SentiWiki (ESA Copernicus) | https://sentiwiki.copernicus.eu/web/s2-mission | tier=agency-doc | accessed=2026-10-21 - [s2-processing] | Sentinel-2 L1C and L2A processing, SentiWiki (ESA Copernicus) | https://sentiwiki.copernicus.eu/web/s2-processing | tier=agency-doc | accessed=2026-10-21 - [s2-applications] | Sentinel-2 applications, SentiWiki (ESA Copernicus) | https://sentiwiki.copernicus.eu/web/s2-applications | tier=agency-doc | accessed=2026-10-21 - [modis-specs] | MODIS technical specifications, NASA | https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/about/specifications.php | tier=agency-doc | accessed=2026-10-21 - [usgs-landsat9] | Landsat 9, USGS | https://www.usgs.gov/landsat-missions/landsat-9 | tier=agency-doc | accessed=2026-10-21 - [roy-2014-landsat8] | Landsat-8: Science and product vision for terrestrial global change research (Roy et al., Remote Sensing of Environment 145) | https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/70188051 | tier=peer-reviewed | accessed=2026-10-21 - [markham-2014-oli-spie] | Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager on-orbit radiometric calibration and performance (Markham et al., SPIE 9218) | https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie/9218/921815/Landsat-8-operational-land-imager-on-orbit-radiometric-calibration-and/10.1117/12.2063159.full | tier=peer-reviewed | accessed=2026-10-21 - [roy-2016-nbar] | A general method to normalize Landsat reflectance data to nadir BRDF adjusted reflectance (Roy et al., Remote Sensing of Environment 176) | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2016.01.023 | tier=peer-reviewed | accessed=2026-10-21 - [claverie-2018-hls] | The Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 surface reflectance data set (Claverie et al., Remote Sensing of Environment 219) | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2018.09.002 | tier=peer-reviewed | accessed=2026-10-21 - [wulder-2019-landsat] | Current status of Landsat program, science, and applications (Wulder et al., Remote Sensing of Environment 225) | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2019.02.015 | tier=peer-reviewed | accessed=2026-10-21 - [king-2013-modis-clouds] | Spatial and temporal distribution of clouds observed by MODIS onboard the Terra and Aqua satellites (King et al., IEEE TGRS 51) | https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2012.2227333 | tier=peer-reviewed | accessed=2026-10-21 - [zhu-woodcock-2012-fmask] | Object-based cloud and cloud shadow detection in Landsat imagery (Zhu and Woodcock, Remote Sensing of Environment 118) | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2011.10.028 | tier=peer-reviewed | accessed=2026-10-21 - [vivone-2015] | A critical comparison among pansharpening algorithms (Vivone et al., IEEE TGRS 53) | https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2014.2361734 | tier=peer-reviewed | accessed=2026-10-21 - [schmit-2017-abi] | A closer look at the ABI on the GOES-R series (Schmit et al., Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 98) | https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/43904 | tier=peer-reviewed | accessed=2026-10-21 - [noaa-abi] | Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI), NOAA NESDIS | https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/our-satellites/currently-flying/goes-east-west/advanced-baseline-imager-abi | tier=agency-doc | accessed=2026-10-21 - [esa-pleiades-neo] | Pleiades Neo, ESA Earth Online | https://earth.esa.int/eogateway/missions/pleiades-neo | tier=agency-doc | accessed=2026-10-21 - [inpe-cbers-cameras] | CBERS-3 and 4 imaging cameras, INPE | https://www.gov.br/inpe/pt-br/programas/cbers/sobre-o-cbers-1/cbers-3-e-4/cameras-imageadoras | tier=agency-doc | accessed=2026-10-21 - [oscar-kmss] | WMO OSCAR instrument record: KMSS | https://space.oscar.wmo.int/instruments/view/kmss | tier=agency-doc | accessed=2026-10-21 - [oscar-msu-mr] | WMO OSCAR instrument record: MSU-MR | https://space.oscar.wmo.int/instruments/view/msu_mr | tier=agency-doc | accessed=2026-10-21 - [nasa-epic-about] | About EPIC, NASA Goddard | https://epic.gsfc.nasa.gov/about/epic | tier=agency-doc | accessed=2026-10-21 - [usgs-ofr-2021-1030e] | System characterization report on Planet SkySat, USGS Open-File Report 2021-1030-E | https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2021/1030/e/ofr20211030e.pdf | tier=agency-doc | accessed=2026-10-21 - [cems-manual] | Using Earth observation data, Copernicus Emergency Management Service Mapping | https://mapping.emergency.copernicus.eu/about/using-of-earth-observation-data/ | tier=agency-doc | accessed=2026-10-21 - [pesaresi-2016-ghsl] | Operating procedure for the production of the Global Human Settlement Layer from Landsat data of the epochs 1975, 1990, 2000 and 2014 (JRC EUR 27741) | https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC97705 | tier=agency-doc | accessed=2026-10-21 - [hansen-2013] | High-resolution global maps of 21st-century forest cover change (Hansen et al., Science 342) | https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1244693 | tier=peer-reviewed | accessed=2026-10-21 - [pekel-2016] | High-resolution mapping of global surface water and its long-term changes (Pekel et al., Nature 540) | https://doi.org/10.1038/nature20584 | tier=peer-reviewed | accessed=2026-10-21 - [luijendijk-2018] | The state of the world's beaches (Luijendijk et al., Scientific Reports 8) | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-24630-6 | tier=peer-reviewed | accessed=2026-10-21 - [immitzer-2016] | First experience with Sentinel-2 data for crop and tree species classifications in central Europe (Immitzer et al., Remote Sensing 8) | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/8/3/166 | tier=peer-reviewed | accessed=2026-10-21 - [rowan-mars-2003] | Lithologic mapping in the Mountain Pass, California area using ASTER data (Rowan and Mars, Remote Sensing of Environment 84) | https://doi.org/10.1016/S0034-4257(02)00127-X | tier=peer-reviewed | accessed=2026-10-21 - [isprs-2017-illegal-buildings] | ISPRS Archives XLII-2/W7, 505: illegal building detection from bi-temporal GeoEye-1, QuickBird and IRS-P5 imagery, Tehran | https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLII-2-W7-505-2017 | tier=peer-reviewed | accessed=2026-10-21 - [frontiers-superdove-s2-2025] | Frontiers in Remote Sensing article 10.3389/frsen.2025.1624783: SuperDove and Sentinel-2 MSI cross-calibration | https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/remote-sensing/articles/10.3389/frsen.2025.1624783/full | tier=peer-reviewed | accessed=2026-10-21 - [planet-docs] | PlanetScope imagery documentation, Planet | https://docs.planet.com/data/imagery/planetscope/ | tier=operator-datasheet | accessed=2026-10-21 - [planet-radiometric-whitepaper] | Planet radiometric calibration white paper | https://assets.planet.com/docs/radiometric_calibration_white_paper.pdf | tier=operator-engineering | accessed=2026-10-21 - [dg-wv3-datasheet] | WorldView-3 data sheet, DigitalGlobe (hosted by NV5 Geospatial) | https://www.nv5geospatialsoftware.com/Portals/0/pdfs/DG2017_WorldView-3_DS.pdf | tier=operator-datasheet | accessed=2026-10-21 - [eoportal-wv3] | WorldView-3, eoPortal | https://eoportal.org/satellite-missions/worldview-3 | tier=community | accessed=2026-10-21 - [eoportal-gaofen1] | Gaofen-1, eoPortal | https://www.eoportal.org/satellite-missions/gaofen-1 | tier=community | accessed=2026-10-21 --- Source: https://eo-atlas.org/topics/methodologies/multispectral-optical-imaging Publisher: SpectraWorks B.V. 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