An Advanced Multispectral Imager for Marine and Coastal Remote Sensing

The world's oceans and coastal zones represent the earth's most diverse and productive resources. Instruments are needed to monitor the health of these fragile eco-systems on an ongoing basis. Duncan Technologies, Inc. proposes the development of a compact, portable digital imager that delivers 5 bands of geo-referenced, pixel-registered imagery in the visible, near infrared, and thermal infrared spectral bands. Several innovative techniques will be implemented to address the unique issues of data acquisition in coastal and marine environments. A fast sequential exposure system will generate image pairs with different exposure settings to cover the large albedo created by the combination of water and vegetation in the field of view. The image pairs will be fused into a single image with expanded sensitivity. A radiometric moisture measurement will enable correction for atmospheric effects in the acquired data. Automated camera control algorithms will maximize information content by maintaining an optimal operating point. Resolution of the thermal band will be enhanced by techniques that extract additional spatial data from the other spectral bands. The imager system will consist of an imaging head and control unit in a compact, portable package for easy application on platforms ranging from aerial to shipboard systems.