Small Airborne Hyperspectral Wide Area Imager for Disaster Response and Earth Science

The proposed hyperspectral plus LWIR system will deliver high signal to noise performance, a wide spectral range, nominally 365 nm to 1.7 um, a single long wave IR band, low optical aberration This sensor system is designed to fit within the size, weight, and power (SWaP) envelopes of small to medium sized UAS (such as the Sierra operated by NASA Ames Research Center) and manned light aircraft (such as the Cessna 172).The system is based on an anamorphic hyperspectral imager. In addition to the UV/Vis/SWIR hyperspectral imager the system will include a single band Long Wave IR (LWIR) imager providing temperature information which is useful for a wide variety of environmental research, and extends the application of the instrument to a number of problems including disaster response, oil spill mapping and detection, and wild fire research. With this NASA SBIR proposal we will develop the system specifically for environmental research and monitoring to a TRL 8 with the final six months of the Phase II dedicated to calibration, flight tests, and development of a certified installation for light aircraft.