Innovative Measurement Techniques for Space-Based Remote Sensing/Standoff Detection

Hyperspectral imaging has been recognized as an important tool for remote reconnaissance. It can identify targets by their pixel spectral content in addition to their spatial characteristic. This is important when the targets are too small to bespatially resolved, or are partially obscured by vegetation, or the targets can only be identified by their spectral signature, such as poison gas clouds.We propose to build an innovative hyperspectral camera suitable for use in satellite born instrumentation. Unlike other approaches this device captures both the spectral information and the spatial information in one simultaneous frame. (In contrast, aspectrograph-based imager would capture the full spectrum of a single spatial line of data at a time and a Fabry-Perot based device would capture a 2D image in a single spectral band at a time). The resulting instrument will have no moving parts andprovide high resolution spectra in a compact, ruggedized, packaged. High resolution hyperspectral imagery is a key element in the developing fields of autonomous military target identification, countering camouflage concealment and deception, friend orfoe determination, chemical warfare defense and homeland security. Additionally, it finds application in geologic mapping, biological research, medical imaging, cancer scanning and in clinical instrumentation. Our highly sensitive approach, will makehyperspectral imaging available for all these application, in a simple, low-cost, robust package.