The United States National Research Council (US NRC) highlights the
need for a global mapping satellite mission that deploys an imaging
spectrometer to make much needed global observations of ecosystem
change (National Research Council, 2007). The US NRC's guidance to
NASA recommends the development of the Hyperspectral Infrared Imager
(HyspIRI) to address this need. The proposed mission will make
optical measurements in over 200 bands in the visible, near and shortwave
infrared, and will have multiple thermal infrared bands. HyspIRI
is planned to have an equatorial revisit time of ~19 days, with a
60 m pixel resolution (Devred et al., 2013). To the best of our knowledge,
there is no other current or plannedmission that could deliver archival,
regularly repeated measurements with the high spectral and
spatial resolutions needed to address freshwater ecosystem science
and management challenges. In this study, we evaluate the potential
contribution of a hyperspectral globalmapping satellite mission tomeasuring
freshwater ecosystems, focusing on passive optical remote sensing
in the visible, near and shortwave infrared regions. Wedemonstrate
the need for such amission, and evaluate the suitability and gaps of such
amission through an examination of themeasurement resolution (spatial,
temporal, spectral and radiometric), exemplified through three case
studies that use remote sensing to characterize a component of freshwater
ecosystem primary production.