Products > Passive Optical Sensors > AIRIS

Adaptive Infrared Imaging Spectroradiometer (AIRIS)

AIRIS is a passive hyperspectral imaging system designed specifically to address the need to remotely detect chemical agent and toxic industrial chemical releases from fixed site, ground mobile, and airborne platforms in a variety of environments (urban, desert, in side public buildings).

Capability Description: Our LWIR HSI systems utilize a piezoelectric-actuated Fabry Perot (FP) etalon operating in low interference orders (approximately 10 15 micron mirror spacing) that functions as a tunable interference filter to select the wavelength viewed by a focal plane array. The imaging capability of the sensor enables the use of advanced background estimation methods that are necessary to extract agent signatures from complex spectrally cluttered backgrounds while its spectral resolving capability enables discrimination of threat compounds from natural and battlefield interferants.

Key Features

(Left) Two AIRIS sensor heads designed for detecting chemical plumes at Dugway Proving Ground.
(Right) One AIRS sensor deployed at a fixed site installation and remotely operated from a kilometer away.
  •  Spectral Agility: AIRIS tune across a set of discrete wavelengths that have been intelligently selected for chemicals of interest, resulting in reduced data volume, maximum information input to spectral recognition algorithms, and increased measurement bandwidth of the sensor.
  •  Staring Mode Operation: The use of a FP etalon enables staring-mode operation and does not require sensor motion to acquire spatial information (in contrast to a push broom system) or a rotating mirror (in contrast to a whisk broom system).
  •  Automated Detection: Advanced background estimation methods coupled with spectral correlation algorithms enable discrimination of threat compounds from natural and battlefield interferants.

Benefit to Warfighter

AIRIS provides real time chemical agent identification, including cloud location, areal extent, and a total mass estimate. This capability benefits the entire defense community in their efforts to improve early warning capabilities, reduce vulnerabilities, and supports interagency objectives for reducing vulnerabilities.

Next generation chemical surface detector testing

LIDARs and Laser Based Sensors category page

Biomedical optics group evaluating a new sensor

Learn more about Biomedical Sensors

Optical device evaluation

Learn more about Optical Devices

Optical Sensor Emerging Technologies

Spatial Heterodyne Surface Chemical Agent Detector

Spatial Heterodyne Surface Chemical Agent Detector

High Speed VNIR/SWIR Hyperspectral Imager

High Speed VNIR/SWIR Hyperspectral Imager

Visible/Near Infrared/Shortwave Infrared Hyperspectral Imager

HSI Gimbals

HSI Gimbals

LWIR and SWIR HSI for small gimbals

CS-HSI

CS-HSI

Compressive Sensing Hyperspectral Imager

SHS Raman

SHS Raman

Spatial Heterodyne Spectrometer Raman Sensor

BioWARD

BioWARD

Bioaerosol plume imager