India's workhorse medium-resolution colour camera, flown on IRS-1C, IRS-1D and the three Resourcesat satellites. It sees the ground at about 23.5 m in four bands, one of them short-wave infrared.
LISS-III records three visible and near-infrared bands and one short-wave infrared (SWIR) band. The SWIR band is sensitive to moisture in soil and leaves, which helps tell crops apart and spot water stress.
On IRS-1C and IRS-1D, the visible and near-infrared bands had about 23.5 m resolution and the SWIR band about 70.5 m. On the Resourcesat satellites all four bands are about 23.5 m.
It is a pushbroom camera with a separate lens and detector line for each band. It looks straight down and covers a strip about 140 km wide. The same spot comes back under the satellite when the orbit repeats, every 24 days.
LISS-III has flown on IRS-1C (1995), IRS-1D (1997), Resourcesat-1 (2003), Resourcesat-2 (2011) and Resourcesat-2A (2016). On Resourcesat-2 its data were improved from 7-bit to 10-bit, meaning finer steps of brightness. Its images are used for crop and pest monitoring, disaster management, and land and water resource management.