Thermal imaging spectroscopy : present technology and future dual use applications

Rapid advances in hyperspectral technologies have led to new sensors, which greatly improve our ability to gather information about distant objects without direct physical contact. While many of these sensors and technologies were designed for environmental monitoring and earth science, they may have important uses for security application and humanitarian aid missions. As the number and capabilities of these sensors continue to grow, the evaluation of their capabilities in a support to environment and security operations setting has become increasingly important. Because of its freedom from the restraint of solar illumination, TIR hyperspectral sensor may represent a step forward in the security support capabilities of hyperspectral sensors.

This article summarises the results of a feasibility study, done in the frame of ESA’s General Studies Programme (GSP), and which set up requirement consolidation for future hyperspectral thermal infra-red imager mission devoted to dual “civil” and “security” applications. In this survey we have found that by using hyperspectral sensor in the thermal infrared wavelengths we could extend our knowledge and give usable tools to the following dual use application: volcanism (monitoring SO2 and lava flow), soil monitoring (mineral and organic matters composition), atmosphere (aerosol), environment (greenhouse gasses), risk management (pollutant gasses and oil spills), geology (silicate mineral composition) and security operational and surveillance support (target identification and mitigation).

For the above application set, spectral, spatial, radiometrical and temporal requirements were summarised. Those requirements vary from high demands in all the domains for the military application to relatively low demands for atmospheric aerosols applications.