Imaging Gas Correlation Camera

This proposal responds to the Earth Remote Sensing research topic (Topic by the STTR Program. Our objectives are to design (Phase I) and build (Phase II) portable cameras that will provide quantitative images of sulfur dioxide (SO2) plumes and clouds in the atmosphere (and other gases later on). Phase I will include a series of laboratory experiments, involving two-dimensional focal plane arrays and SO2 gas cells, to evaluate the feasibility of basing the SO2 cameras on ultraviolet (UV) and thermal infrared (TIR) correlation spectroscopy. The experiments will compare detector technologies, characterize detector response to differing concentrations of SO2, define upper limits on the SO2 signal strength in the UV and TIR, and determine detection thresholds. The experimental results, together with optical, electronic, and radiative transfer modeling, will drive the camera design. The SO2 cameras will support the MTPE Natural Hazard Program (environmental and volcanic hazard monitoring), Earth Observing System Volcanology Interdisciplinary Study Team, and Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) Volcanic SO2 Team (validation of SO2 retrieval algorithms).