SPECTRA Program

SPECTRA (Surface Processes and Ecosystem Changes Through Response Analysis) was an ESA Earth Explorer candidate concept to describe, understand and model terrestrial vegetation’s role in the global carbon cycle and its response to climate variability under growing human pressure. The mission would combine multi-angular visible, near-infrared, short-wave-infrared and thermal-infrared imaging to derive vegetation amount, structure, biochemical state, temperature, soil and canopy properties, linking field observations to regional and global ecosystem models. ESA assessment material documents SPECTRA as a research concept rather than an implemented programme.