Thermal Mapping Airborne Simulator for Small Satellite Sensor

The overall objective of the project is the development of a sensor which we have named the Thermal Mapping and Measurement System (TMMS).nbsp; TMMS is a small, high performance, inexpensive, multi-band thermal infrared camera system, suitable for deployment in a variety of observational platforms. nbsp;This imaging system will be capable of mapping and measuring thermal features on the surface of the earth with a high revisit rate and high spatial resolution.The proposed prototype will deliver high spatial resolution, wide field of view, high signal to noise performance, and three or more infrared spectral bands.nbsp; The system includes near real-time onboard processing, using artificial intelligence and machine learning, to extract the information of greatest value, orthorectify the imagery, and reduce the size of the data for transmission.nbsp; This sensor system is designed to fit within the size, weight, and power (SWaP) envelopes of typical remote sensing aircraft and 6U CubeSats.The small size and low cost combined with near real time processing supports deployment of a constellation of sensors working together to provide high revisit rates, cross calibration, enhanced measurement and detection of thermal anomalies including wildfires, and coordination of observational assets. The flexibility of the design supports a multi-layered earth observation network including sensors in Polar Orbit (mapping the entire planet including polar regions), sensors in elliptical orbits (providing higher resolution and shorter revisit times over highly populated regions), sensors in High Altitude Long Endurance aircraft operating in the stratosphere (providing persistent observation over large wildfire incidents), as well as sensors in low flying aircraft (manned or unmanned) providing extremely high resolution imagery under the cloud layer.nbsp;