Design and Performance of the Hyper-Cam, an Infrared Hyperspectral Imaging Sensor

Emerging applications in Defense and Security require sensors with state-of-the-art sensitivity and capabilities. Among these sensors, the imaging spectrometer is an instrument yielding a large amount of rich information about the measured scene. This powerful spectrometric tool is becoming more common in civil applications such as search and rescue, geological surveys, pollution monitoring, forest fire detection and monitoring and combustion studies. These sensors are now also emerging as indispensable assets for defence operations through the role they can play for troop protection against chemical attacks, detection of mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) and for the detection of camouflaged targets. Imaging spectrometers have unmatched capabilities to meet the requirements of these applications.