Simulating a Chromotomographic Sensor for Hyperspectral Imaging in the Infrared

摘要

Hyperspectral imaging systems passively sense radiant electromagnetic energy from a remote scene to form a three dimension profile of the remote scene. The data contained in this profile describes real images of the remote scene for a certain number of spectral wavelength bands across a finite spectral range of electromagnetic radiation. Typical grating type hyperspectral imaging systems collect spectral electromagnetic radiation in the visible and near infrared spectral range, by incrementally scanning across the spatial extent of the remote scene. The legacy of low optical throughput because of the optical scanning techniques employed in these systems means adapting these systems for spectral ranges extending into the mid wave and long wave infrared is difficult. A chromotomographic imaging system utilizing a sensor optics system with significantly greater optical throughput of electromagnetic radiation has been reported to demonstrate reasonable quality hyperspectral images for finite spectral ranges in the visible, mid wave, and long wave infrared. The spectral electromagnetic radiation collected through the sensor optics system angularly multiplexes the electromagnetic radiation collected from the remote scene using a rotating prism to disperse and spatially separate the electromagnetic radiation spectral components onto a focal plane array detector. Using optics principles and wave optics propagation theory, a software model was designed based on linear systems principles to emulate the point spread function attributes of the chromotomographic sensor, equivalent to the impulse response for a linear system.