Multispectral Imaging
The AIRIS Wide Area Detector is an imaging multispectral sensor that has been successfully tested in both ground and airborne configurations for the detection of chemical and biological agent simulants. The sensor is based on the use of a Fabry-Perot based tunable filter with a 256 x 256 pixel HgCdTe focal plane array providing a 32 x 32 degree field of regard with 10 meter spatial resolution at a range of 5 km. The sensor includes a real-time processor that produces an infrared image of the scene under interrogation overlaid with color-coded pixels indicating the identity and location of simulants detected by the sensor. Testing of the sensor technology has been extensive. Over its history there have been observations of over 300 releases, including both sequential and simultaneous releases of two simulants. These observations have been conducted from both ground and airborne platforms, often involving multiple AIRIS sensors looking at the same releases from different locations with different backgrounds. Cloud tracking, as well as route reconnaissance capability, has been demonstrated from airborne platforms. We have extensively utilized data from the sensor to evaluate the performance of the system as a function of release characteristics, range and environmental conditions and are constantly looking for new deployment applications for the AIRIS technology with recent successes in surface contamination detection, as well as tagging and tracking activities.
AIRIS-WAD component photos: sensor unit (A), operator display unit (B)
remote data computer (C), power unit (D), and portable wirelss data telemetry,
and control assembly (E)
