Earth system science related imaging spectroscopy—An assessment

The science of spectroscopy has existed for more than three centuries, and imaging spectroscopy for the Earth system for three decades. We first discuss the historical background of spectroscopy, followed by imaging spectroscopy, introducing a common definition for the latter. The relevance of imaging spectroscopy is then assessed using a comprehensive review of the cited literature. Instruments, technological advancements and (pre-)processing approaches are discussed to set the scene for application related advancements. We demonstrate these efforts using four examples that represent progress due to imaging spectroscopy, namely (i) bridging scaling gaps from molecules to ecosystems using coupled radiative transfer models (ii) assessing surface heterogeneity including clumping, (iii) physical based (inversion) modeling, and iv) assessing interaction of light with the Earth surface. Recent advances of imaging spectroscopy contributions to the Earth system sciences are discussed. We conclude by summarizing the achievements of thirty years of imaging spectroscopy and strongly recommend this community to increase its efforts to convince relevant stakeholders of the urgency to acquire the highest quality imaging spectrometer data for Earth observation from operational satellites capable of collecting consistent data for climatically-relevant periods of time.