Recent Advances in the Remote Sensing of Radiological Materials by Passive FTIR Radiometry. 2005-2006 Summary Report for the Canadian Safeguards Support Program of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission

摘要

Over the past year DRDC Valcartier has continued to investigate the feasibility of using passive standoff FTIR radiometry for the detection of radiological materials. Previously, we have shown that a large number of radiological materials have an infrared signature in the 8-14 micro m thermal infrared region, including several oxides of uranium and cobalt. Based on the positive results of a number of ground-based measurements and simulations using the MODTRAN4 atmospheric transmission model, it was decided that a measurement campaign should be attempted using an airborne HSI sensor. The AIRIS sensor, developed by DRDC Valcartier and installed in a Convair 580 aircraft, was used to measure several radiological compounds from an altitude of 1 km during a trial at DRDC Suffield in July 2005. The ARIS sensor was used in conjunction with two different telescopes; one resulting in high-resolution spatial images and the other resulting in low-spatial resolution images. Unfortunately, the former configuration did not function correctly during the trial, and only the lowresolution images were captured by AIRIS. An additional six months is required for the analysis of these images to be completed before it will be known if the HSI sensor was successful in detecting and identifying the radiological compounds. Ground-truth data collected during the trial at DRDC Suffield will be used in the image analysis process. Future work is planned for 2006/2007 that may involve an additional trial with the AIRIS HSI sensor.