Passive Infrared Detection of Aerosolized Bacterial Spores

deciBel Research and our university partner, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)-Center for Imaging Science, propose to develop a dual MWIR/LWIR imaging polarimeter for the detection and discrimination of aerosolized biological spores. The system will exploit spectral absorption and MIE scattering-induced radiometric and polarimetric phenomenon exhibited by clouds of aerosolized biological spores. The prototype sensor to be delivered under Phase II will utilize a temporal acquisition architecture to acquire the polarimetric portion of the signatures while the dual MWIR and LWIR channels will exploit the spectral absorption signatures. Under the Phase I effort, the spectral and MIE scattering signatures of a candidate aerosolized biological spores will be estimated using models based on RIT’s micro Digital Imaging and Remote Sensing Image Generator (DIRSIG). Multi-variate analysis, such as Principal Components Analysis (PCA), will be used to identify key features of the spectro-polarimetric signatures for detection and discrimination. Sensor performance requirements will be derived and the performance of several sensor architectures will be evaluated with respect to these requirements. A concept design will then be completed under the Phase I effort while a field deployable prototype sensor will be fabricated under the Phase II program.