The POLDER (polarization and directionality of earth reflectances) sensor has been developed by the French Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) to be flown on board NASDA's ADEOS polar orbiting satellite. The POLDER sensor is a wide-field-of-view (114 degrees, 2400 km swath), moderate resolution (6 multiplied by 7 km2 at nadir) and multi-spectral imaging radiometer/polarimeter designed to collect global and repetitive observations of the solar radiation reflected by the Earth-atmosphere-ocean system. In addition to the classical measurement and mapping capabilities of a narrow-band multispectral imaging radiometer, POLDER will provide new opportunities by measuring polarized reflectances and observing target reflectances from up to 14 directions along a single satellite pass and from more directions by multi-pass combination. Both the bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) and the bidirectional polarization distribution function (BPDF) are sampled and determined from the POLDER data. The bulk of the observations performed with the POLDER sensor are expected to contribute to advances in climate-related research on aerosol cycling, aerosol-cloud-radiation interactions, the Earth radiation budget, ocean primary production and continental biosphere dynamics as well as to other environmental studies.
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