Spaceborne snapshot compressive hyperspectral imaging

Zhenming Yu; Liming Cheng; Jingyue Ma; Jiayu Di; Liang Lin; Ning Zhan; Tongshuo Zhang; Xing Zhong; Xiaojun He; Shanbo Chen; Xiaoxue Gong; Xu Cao; Huibin Zhang; Bingli Guo; Yongli Zhao; Shanguo Huang; Kun Xu

doi:10.1038/s41377-026-02296-4

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Spaceborne snapshot compressive hyperspectral imaging

Original Articles

- Spaceborne snapshot compressive hyperspectral imaging
- Light: Science & Applications Vol. 15, Issue 8, Pages: 2640-2649(2026)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.State Key Laboratory of Information Photonics and Optical Communications, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing, China
  2.Xiong'an Aerospace Information Research Institute, Xiong'an, China
  3.Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co., Ltd., Changchun, China
- Author bio：
  
  Zhenming Yu (yuzhenming@bupt.edu.cn)
  Kun Xu (xukun@bupt.edu.cn)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/s41377-026-02296-4
  CLC：
- Received：12 August 2025，
  
  Revised：2026-03-28，
  
  Accepted：02 April 2026，
  
  Online First：18 May 2026，
  
  Published：31 August 2026
- Accepted：
Scan QR Code
Yu, Z. M. et al. Spaceborne snapshot compressive hyperspectral imaging. Light: Science & Applications, 15, 2640-2649 (2026).
DOI：

Yu, Z. M. et al. Spaceborne snapshot compressive hyperspectral imaging. Light: Science & Applications, 15, 2640-2649 (2026). DOI： 10.1038/s41377-026-02296-4.

摘要

Abstract

Hyperspectral remote sensing images provide rich spatial and spectral information about the Earth's surface

making them an essential tool for Earth observation. However

existing spaceborne hyperspectral payloads experience slow acquisition speeds and generate large data volumes

posing significant challenges for real-time applications. Moreover

the complex optical design and relatively high cost of traditional hyperspectral payloads hinder their broad-scale in-orbit deployment. In this work

we have proposed and completed the world's first computational imaging-enabled compact spaceborne snapshot compressive hyperspectral payload

named

BUPT-spectra01

which was successfully launched on November 11

2024

at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China. We design a reflective coding structure

which enables

BUPT-spectra01

to achieve high compactness (182 mm × 214 mm × 94 mm

1.535 kg) and low cost. The payload operates in a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 520 km

with a ground imaging swath width of 51 km by 64 km. Through a single exposure (1 ms)

the payload enables 47-band hyperspectral imaging with a spectral resolution of 6.5 nm

achieving 47-times data compression simultaneously. To achieve high-accuracy hyperspectral information reconstruction

we design a novel spatial-spectral inference neural network (SSI-Net). Moreover

BUPT-spectra01

can image at a rate of 30 frames per second

which allows video-level hyperspectral observation. In-orbit experiments demonstrate that

BUPT-spectra01

achieves accurate classification of ground cover based on hyperspectral features

showing promise in hyperspectral observation applications such as disaster management

environment monitoring

and resource exploration. This breakthrough significantly advances the application of computational imaging in aerospace observation

contributing to the progress of future satellite internet.

关键词

Keywords

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