Mercury radiometer and thermal infrared spectrometer--a novel thermal imaging spectrometer for the exploration of Mercury

The MERTIS instrument is a state of the art imaging spectrometer in the TIR range onboard ESA's Bepi Colombo mission to the planet Mercury. MERTIS has four science goals: the study of Mercury's surface composition, identification of rock-forming minerals, mapping of the surface mineralogy, and the study of surface temperature variations and of the thermal inertia. The instrument is designed to achieve a signal-to-noise-ratio above 100 in the 7-14 µm range with a spectral channel width of 90 nm and a nominal spatial ground resolution of 500 m within the complex thermal and radiation environment of Mercury.