First flights of a new airborne thermal infrared imaging spectrometer with high area coverage

Jeffrey L. Hall; Richard H. Boucher; David J. Gutierrez; Steven J. Hansel; Brian P. Kasper; Eric R. Keim; Nery M. Moreno; Mark L. Polak; Mazaher G. Sivjee; David M. Tratt; David W. Warren

doi:10.1117/12.884865

20 May 2011 First flights of a new airborne thermal infrared imaging spectrometer with high area coverage

Jeffrey L. Hall, Richard H. Boucher, David J. Gutierrez, Steven J. Hansel, Brian P. Kasper, Eric R. Keim, Nery M. Moreno, Mark L. Polak, Mazaher G. Sivjee, David M. Tratt, David W. Warren

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 8012, Infrared Technology and Applications XXXVII; 801203 (2011) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.884865
Event: SPIE Defense, Security, and Sensing, 2011, Orlando, Florida, United States

Abstract

A new airborne thermal infrared imaging spectrometer, "Mako", with 128 bands in the thermal infrared covering 7.8 to 13.4 microns, has recently completed its engineering flight trials. Results from these flights, which occurred in September 2010 and included two science flights, are presented. The new sensor flies in a Twin Otter aircraft and operates in a whiskbroom mode, giving it the ability to scan to ±40° around nadir. The sensor package is supported on a commercial 3-axis-stabilized mount which greatly reduces aircraft-induced pointing jitter. The internal optics and focal plane array are operated near liquid helium temperatures, which in conjunction with a fast f/1.25 spectrometer enables low noise performance despite the sensor's small (0.55 mrad) pixel size and the high frame rate needed to cover large whisk angles. Besides the large-area-coverage scan mode (20 km² per minute at 2-meter GSD from 12,500 ft. AGL), the sensor features a scan mirror pitch capability that enables both a high-sensitivity mode (longer integration times using frame summing, covering a smaller spatial region) and a multiple-look mode (multiple looks at a smaller region in a single aircraft overpass, for discriminating plume motion, for example).

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Jeffrey L. Hall, Richard H. Boucher, David J. Gutierrez, Steven J. Hansel, Brian P. Kasper, Eric R. Keim, Nery M. Moreno, Mark L. Polak, Mazaher G. Sivjee, David M. Tratt, and David W. Warren "First flights of a new airborne thermal infrared imaging spectrometer with high area coverage", Proc. SPIE 8012, Infrared Technology and Applications XXXVII, 801203 (20 May 2011); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.884865

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