The Hyperspectral Imager for the Coastal Ocean (HICO™) is an imaging spectrometer based on the PHILLS airborne imaging spectrometers. HICO is the first spaceborne imaging spectrometer designed to sample the coastal ocean. HICO will sample selected coastal regions at 90 m with full spectral coverage (380 to 960 nm sampled at 5.7 nm) and a very high signal-to-noise ratio to resolve the complexity of the coastal ocean. HICO is sponsored by the Office of Naval Research as an Innovative Naval Prototype (INP), and will demonstrate coastal products including water clarity, bottom types, bathymetry and on-shore vegetation maps. As an INP, HICO also demonstrates innovative ways to reduce the cost and schedule of this space mission by adapting proven PHILLS aircraft imager architecture and using Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) components where possible.
The HICO program was initiated in February 2006. In January 2007 HICO was selected to fly on the Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility (JEM-EF) on the International Space Station. Construction began following the Critical Design Review on November 15, 2007. HICO was completed in July 2008 and it was integrated into the HICO and RAIDS Experimental Payload (HREP) in August 2008. HICO is integrated into HREP and flown with support and direction from DOD’s Space Test Program. HREP has also received support from NASA and JAXA as the first US experiment payload on the JEM-EF. HREP was launched on the H-2 Transfer Vehicle (HTV) September 10, 2009. The HTV rendezvoused with the ISS on September 17, 2009. The first HICO imagery was collected on September 25, 2009. The initial one-year demonstration phase was completed October 1, 2010. The current focus is on providing HICO data for scientific research on coastal zones and other regions around the world. To that end we have developed this website and we will make data available to registered HICO Data Users who wish to work with us as a team to exploit these data. Each year HICO collects approximately 1000 scenes from around the world. HICO operations are scheduled to continue through September 2012.
Become a HICO Data User
As a demonstration instrument, HICO is designed to collect one 50 x 200 km scene per orbit. A limited amount of this data will be available to academic and international scientists for their scientific studies. To become a HICO Data User and request data for your study requires a short proposal and signing a data use agreement. Team members will be asked to publish and share all data and results including presenting their results at an annual HICO Team Meeting. To access the forms and format for the proposal and apply visit the "Become a HICO Data User" webpage.
