FEASIBILITY OF MODIFYING A THERMAL SCANNER TO MEASURE LAVA FLOW CHARACTERISTICS

THE NASA GEOLOGY PROGRAM HAS BEEN STUDYING THE APPLICATION OF THERMAL INFRARED IMAGING FROM AIRCRAFT TO SURFACE COMPOSITIONAL MAPPING AND MODELING THE DYNAMICS OF HIGH TEMPERATURE LAVA FLOWS. IN ORDER TO SUPPORT THESE STUDIES, THERE IS A CRITICAL NEED FOR AN INSTRUMENT TO MAKE ACCURATE TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENTS OF HIGH TEMPERATURE SURFACES SUCH AS LAVA FLOWS. THE PROPOSED RESEARCH WILL INVESTIGATE THE FEASIBILITY OF MODIFYING THE EXISTING THERMAL INFRARED MULTISPECTRAL SCANNER (TIMS) OPERATED BY NASA RATHER THAN DESIGNING A NEW SYSTEM TO ACCOMPLISH THE OBJECTIVES. THE RESEARCH WILL INVOLVE THE ANALYSIS OF SEVERAL SPECTROMETER AND SCAN HEAD MODIFICATIONS WHICH COULD BE IMPLEMENTED USING TIMS SCAN HEAD OPTICS. IN ADDITION, WE WILL EVALUATE THE REQUIRED CHANGES TO THE SIGNAL PROCESSING ELECTRONICS TO IMPROVE THE SYSTEM DYNAMIC RANGE. EACH ALTERNATIVE DESIGN WILL BE EVALUATED WITH RESPECT TO COMPATIBILITY WITH THE EXISTING SYSTEM, AND THE PROBABLE PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE RESULTING INSTRUMENT. SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH WILL RESULT IN AN INSTRUMENT CAPABLE OF HIGH TEMPERATURE SURFACE MEASUREMENTS WITH THE OPTION OF CONVERSION TO STANDARD TIMS CONFIGURATION WITH IMPROVED DYNAMIC RANGE.