The International Space Station (ISS) has just received a hyperspectral imaging sensor that was developed by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) for real-time monitoring of space weather and the ocean environment. This marks the first time that ISS has been used as a platform for Earth observation.
The Hyperspectral Imager for the Coastal Ocean (HICO) and Remote Atmospheric and Ionospheric Detection System (RAIDS) Experiment Payload (HREP) launched September 10, 2009, on-board the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) H-II Transfer Vehicle. The hyperspectral sensor has been tuned to water-penetrating wavelengths, and is the first space-borne sensor that has been optimized for observation of coastal ocean environments. The unique orbit of the space station provides an opportunity to study the ocean environment at different times of the day, since the ISS isn’t on a sun synchronous orbit. The data collected include water clarity, bottom-types, bathymetry and on-shore vegetation maps.
Read more details about the sensor and data collection via the NRL website.
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I believe that this is actually the second time ‘that ISS has been used as a platform for Earth observation’.
The University of North Dakota Ag Cam was installed on May 31, 2009. They are still working out some technical glitches, so I don’t know if they have actually collected any data yet.
http://www.umac.org/sensors/agcam/index.html
Also an astronaut rigged a set of gimbals to allow tracking for long nighttime exposures of urban lights on a large format camera. http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/CitiesAtNight/