INFRARED SPECTRAL IMAGING RADIOMETER (IRSIR)

The proposed effort analyzes five spectral imaging radiometer concepts with the goal of developing an infrared spectral imaging radiometer (IRSIR) for use in high performance aircraft. The desired performance characteristics for this IRSIR are: high optical throughput, a small physical package, and 0.5 to 1.0 percent spectral resolution over the 0.2 to 12 um range at frame rates of 30-100 frames per second. Two of the concepts use innovative staring spectrometer designs and collect the spatial/ spectral image in a single frame. The other three scanning approaches create the spatial/spectral image by combining multiple image frames. The five methods vary greatly in innovation, performance, and technical risk. The research has four objectives: (A) Identify the IRSIR applications and design goals (B) Perform a preliminary analysis of the five concepts (C) Select the best candidate approach (D) Determine the feasibility of the candidate approach. A design concept will be developed for the best candidate for Phase II prototyping. It is expected the Phase II implementation and testing will confirm that the proposed IRSIR will collect unique target signature data permitting discrimination of targets and backgrounds from an aircraft platform.