The Copernicus Hyperspectral Imaging Mission for the Environment (CHIME) is advancing its development to be ready for launch. CHIME will provide routine hyperspectral observations from space across the visible to shortwave infrared spectral range (400-2500 nm), supporting enhanced environmental services in areas such as food security, sustainable agriculture, biodiversity monitoring, soil characterisation, mineral resources and water quality. With a swath of approximately 130 km and a spatial sampling distance of 30 m, CHIME will complement Copernicus Sentinel-2 and extend Europe's Earth observation capabilities through operational imaging spectroscopy.

CHIME is part of Copernicus Expansion, the Earth Observation component of the European Union’s Space Program, implemented by the European Space Agency on behalf of the European Commission.

As prime contractor, Thales Alenia Space is leading an industrial consortium, including OHB and Leonardo as major partners for the development of the mission payload.

A key enabling technology of the mission is the Ka-band transmission subsystem, which supports the downlink of the large volumes of hyperspectral data generated by the CHIME instrument. Continuous global hyperspectral acquisition produces data at a scale that requires advanced onboard processing, high-capacity mass memory and high-rate Ka-band communications. The CHIME architecture incorporates a Ka-band downlink capability of approximately 3.6-3.7 Gbps, enabling routine delivery of operational hyperspectral products. In support to this development carried out by our teams in Spain, the Madrid Region has granted funding for the acquisition of a High Data Rate Ground Receiver unit required for the validation of the subsystem.