The EnMAP spaceborne imaging spectroscopy mission: Initial scientific results after one year into operation

Imaging spectroscopy has been a recognized and established technology since the 1980s from mainly airborne and field based platforms for the identification and quantification of key bio- and geo-chemical surface and atmospheric compounds based on characteristic spectral reflectance features in the visible-near infrared (VNIR) and short-wave infrared (SWIR). Meanwhile, spaceborne missions, a leap in technology, were sparse, starting with the CHRIS/PROBA and EO1/Hyperion missions in the early 2000s providing spectroscopy data with limited spectral coverage or lesser data quality in the SWIR. Since 2019, several countries and agencies have successfully launched several spaceborne imaging spectroscopy systems in orbit or on the ISS such as DESIS, PRISMA, HISUI, GF-5, EnMAP and EMIT. As part of these recent missions, the German Environmental Mapping and Analysis Program (EnMAP) stands for its long-term development, sophisticated design with on-board calibration, high data quality requirements, and strong science accompanying program. EnMAP was launched in April 2022 and, following a successful commissioning phase, started its operational activities in November 2022. The EnMAP mission encompasses global coverage from 74° N to 74° S through on-demand data acquisitions. Data are characterized by open free access, 30 m spatial resolution, high spectral resolution with a spectral sampling distance of 6.5 nm and 10 nm in the VNIR and SWIR regions respectively, and high signal-to-noise ratio. In this paper, we aim to present the current status of the mission, coverage, science capabilities and performances after one year into operation. We use EnMAP to show the potential of space-based imaging spectroscopy to operate in various environments, including high and low light levels, dense forests, Antarctica glaciers, and arid agricultural areas, which can and which enable application field areas, including agriculture and forest, soil compositional mapping, raw materials, methane mapping, water, snow and ice. These results show that the performance of EnMAP is beyond the mission requirements, and the high potential of EnMAP for contribution to scientific exploitation in various geo- and bio-fields. EnMAP also represents a key tool for the development an testing of data processing algorithms for upcoming global operational missions.