FEASIBILITY OF MODIFYING A MULTISPECTRAL SCANNER TO MEASURE FIRE CHARACTERISTICS

NASA, IN COOPERATION WITH SEVERAL OTHER AGENCIES, HAS BEEN STUDYING THE CHARACTERISTICS OF WILDLAND FIRES WITH PARTICULAR EMPHASIS ON UNDERSTANDING NUTRIENT TRANSPORT MECHANISMS. THESE STUDIES HAVE SHOWN THAT MULTISPECTRAL DATA, ESPECIALLY IN THE THERMAL INFRARED REGION, PROVIDES VALUABLE INFORMATION ON FIRE CHARACTERISTICS. EXISTING INSTRUMENTS PROVIDE THERMAL INFRARED DATA IN ONLY A FEW BROAD BANDS OF THE SPECTRUM AND IT IS PREDICTED THAT BETTER MEASUREMENTS COULD BE OBTAINED USING MANY MORE BANDS AND HIGHER SPECTRAL RESOLUTION. IT MAY BE POSSIBLE TO DESIGN A NEW SPECTROMETER FOR AN EXISTING NASA AIRBORNE MULTISPECTRALSCANNER TO ACQUIRE THE DESIRED HIGH SPECTRAL RESOLUTION DATA. THE PROPOSED RESEARCH WILL INVESTIGATE THE FEASIBILITY OF DESIGNING AND BUILDING A MULTISPECTRAL THERMAL INFRARED SPECTROMETER. THE EFFORT WILL INVOLVE THE ANALYSIS OF ALTERNATIVE SPECTROMETER DESIGNS WHICH MIGHT BE IMPLEMENTED USING THE EXISTING SCANNER PRIMARY OPTICS AND SIGNAL PROCESSING ELECTRONICS. EACH ALTERNATIVE DESIGN WILL BE EVALUATED WITH RESPECT TO COMPATIBILITY WITH THE EXISTING SYSTEM, NUMBER OF SPECTRAL BANDS THAT CAN BE OBTAINED, AND THE PROBABLE PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE RESULTING INSTRUMENT. SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH WILL RESULT IN THE DESIGN OF AN INSTRUMENT FOR AIRBORNE MEASUREMENT OF WILDLAND FIRE CHARACTERISTICS ON A LOCAL AND REGIONAL SCALE.