This proposal is to develop an integrated passive hyperspectral/active fluorescence imaging sensor system for airborne applications. These two remote sensing techniques have demonstrated major capability to identify, discriminated and map a wide variety of materials and properties on land and on/in water. A side variety of applications exist in the commercial and government markets for both civil/environmental and defense/intelligence. SETS will develop the integrated HSI-DFI sensor system at first for a small airborne platform to operate at low-cost and with flexibility. SETS has major experience in applying both these techniques and in the development and implementation of electro- optical sensors and the software and algorithms to extract information from the data sets. SETS will build upon its capabilities, including 1) its prototype HSI airborne system, currently operating, 2) its prototype active/passive dual-mode fluorescence imaging system, currently being built, and 3) its extensive spectral image processing software and algorithms such as spectral mixing analysis (SMA) tools for subpixel analysis. In Phase I, SETS will review the requirements and develop a detailed conceptual design, the system and performance models, and a design the preliminary test plan.Commercial Applications:Potential applications involve the detection and mapping of a wide variety of objects and materials. Commercial applications include: management of coastal zones, wetlands, forests, agriculture, urban planning, municipal zoning and management, reef assessment, pollution monitoring, ocean productivity, support of commercial satellite systems in calibration, algorithm development and testing, and product quality assurance.
