The Polarization and Directionality of the Earth's Reflectances (POLDER) instrument was originally designed as a space-borne passive radiometer onboard the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Advanced Earth Observing Satellite. The POLDER instrument was designed to measure polarized and directional solar radiation that is reflected by land and ocean surfaces as well as the atmosphere in the visible and near-infrared spectrum. POLDER measures across eight discrete spectral bands in various polarities.

The POLDER instrument was provided by the Laboratoire d'Etudes et de Rescherches en Teledetection Spatiale (LERTS)/Centre National D'etudes Spatiales (CNES) of France for the Japanese ADvanced Earth Observation Satellite (ADEOS).