Spectral Imaging of Aerosols

There are a number of potential commercial and military applications for the development of a compact, multispectral imager in the LWIR. Several nerve agents and other aerosols of commercial interest show strong absorption features in the infrared. Additional applications include aerosol characterization, target detection, and counter-measure rejection for military and commercial customers. However, multispectral sensors in the infrared, and in particular in the long wave infrared (8 – 12 microns) are typically research instruments that are very expensieve. This proposal describes the development of a sensor that will address this need for a relatively low-cost and yet robust multi-spectral sensor for the infrared. The proposed effort extends work performed under the Phase I SBIR that developed an architecture suitable for infrared multispectral imaging. The basic instrument architecture was matured in a separate, prior SBIR effort for infrared polarimetric imaging. In this effort, we will use the same, mature architecture to develop a multi-spectral imaging capability. Furthermore, the multispectral sensor will operate over a different part of the infrared spectrum.