Utilization of data from the imaging spectrometer MERIS on ENVISAT in Germany

Many future satellite missions will make use of imaging spectrometers for the remote sensing of the Earth's biosphere and atmosphere and thus offer new challenges in environmental monitoring and global change research. Within the Earth observation program of the European Space Agency (ESA) the first instrument of this type will be the Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) to be launched on ENVISAT in 2001. So as to promote the utilization of MERIS data in Germany, four research institutes and a small and medium enterprise with many years of experience in imaging spectroscopy and relevant applications have joint each other in a goverment - supported project entitled "MERIS Application and Regional Products Project (MAPP)"