📊 Multispectral — a few broad discrete bands
- Examples: Landsat OLI, SPOT HRV, IKONOS, MODIS
- Typical: 4–10 bands across visible + NIR + SWIR
🔥 Thermal — one or more bands in 3–14 µm IR
- Examples: Landsat TIRS, ASTER thermal
- Detects emitted heat (works day and night)
🌈 Hyperspectral — hundreds of narrow contiguous bands
- Examples: Hyperion (220 bands), AVIRIS
- Identifies specific minerals, plant species, pollutants

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Multi = few (tens), Hyper = many (hundreds), Thermal = heat only. 'Hyper' literally means MORE — that's the clue.

sensors/three-optical-types