WIDE-BAND IMAGING SPECTRORADIOMETER SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT

IMAGING SPECTRORADIOMETERS COMMONLY USE A POLYCHROMATOR TYPE INSTRUMENT IN CONJUNCTION WITH AN IMAGING ARRAY. SUCH INSTRUMENTS ARE LARGE IN SIZE AND WEIGHT, AND REQUIRE DELICATE ALIGNMENT OF THE DISPERSION ELEMENT IN RELATION TO THE ARRAY. A NOVEL CONCEPT USES NO DISPERSION ELEMENT BUT A PROPRIETARY ANAMORPHIC OPTICAL SYSTEM, AND A SPECIAL DATA REDUCTION ALGORITHM, PRODUCES A PERMANENTLY ALIGNED, ALL SOLID-STATE, SPECTRUM RESOLVING SENSOR WHICH CAN BE ADAPTED FOR USE IN EXISTING FLIR SYSTEMS. THE TECHNIQUE CAN BE ADAPTED TO A SINGLE ELEMENT DETECTOR, LINE ARRAY, OR AREA ARRAY FLIR. SPECTRAL RESOLUTION FROM SEVERAL HUNDREDS TO SEVERAL THOUSANDS IS ACHIEVABLE WHILE THE ACTUAL OPERATING RESOLUTION IS SOFTWARE SELECTABLE AND MAY BE VARIED IN REAL-TIME. THE OBJECTIVES OF PAHSE I ARE TO DEVELOP A LIST OF PERFORMANCE AND OPERATIONAL REQUIREMENTS, TO PERFORM DESIGN TRADE-OFFS, TO DESIGN AND SPECIFY THE SUBSYSTEMS AND COMPONENTS, AND TO PREPARE A HARDWARE DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR PHASE II. THE SYSTEM IS DESIGNED TO UTILIZE COMMERCIAL FLIR COMMON MODULES, AND IS VIDEO INTERFACED WITH TO MICRO-COMPUTER FOR REL-TIME IMAGE OPERATIONS SUCH AS ELETRONIC ZOOM, SPOT SPECTRUM OR TEMPERATURE READOUT, ISOTHERMS OR ISO-WAVELENGTH IMAGES, IMAGE AVERAGING, FILTERING, REGION-OF-INTEREST OPERATIONS, ETC. PHASE II WILL CONSIST OF BREADBOARD DESIGN VERIFICATION AND DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM FOLLOWED BY PROTOTYPE FABRICATION AND DEMONSTRATION.