imager

Equipped with a hyperspectral imager, the satellite sensor captures reflected light from Earth in different wavelengths to generate detailed surface maps for various applications, including bushfire monitoring, water quality assessment and land management.

The simplest is an imager - a camera that will take pictures of the scene passing below the spacecraft to give context to the measurements made by the other three instruments.

Britain also supplied the radiometer, from Thales Alenia Space UK, and the imager, from Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd.

"Coronagraphs tell us about how a CME is developing near the surface, and then we'll also have a heliospheric imager which will track the CME as it moves through space towards Earth, giving us a much better idea of how long it will take to arrive," explained Dr Michelle Sprake, the Airbus lead systems engineer on Vigil.

The technology continues to advance, with clinical studies for additional cameras — including a handheld imager that can screen patients in the field — and looking at other eye diseases, like glaucoma.