Electronic Military & Defense Annual Resource

2nd Edition

Electronic Military & Defense magazine was developed for engineers, program managers, project managers, and those involved in the design and development of electronic and electro-optic systems for military, defense, and aerospace applications.

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Technology Countermeasure Characterization And Development Using Standoff Infrared Hyperspectral Imaging Hyperspectral imaging is providing intelligence agencies with information previously unavailable in characterizing countermeasures and spectral signatures of soldiers' uniforms. by Marc-André Gagnon he development of effective countermeasures is a major concern of worldwide intelligence agencies. However, characterization of toxic or harmful sub- stances can be a challenging task due to associated safety issues — field experiments carried out on chemical warfare agents (CWA) or toxic industrial chemicals (TIC) are among such risky experiments. The development of other defensive devices like smoke candles and flares also involve gaseous emissions of different chemicals. Airborne reconnais- sance and surveillance represent additional challenges for militaries when it comes to deployment in hostile environ- ments. In all these situations, standoff detection represents an effective approach for the characterization involved in the development of such devices. T Measurement and signature intelligence (MASINT) is another cornerstone of most of the military agencies, in which chemical imaging using infra- red is considered a method of choice. In such applica- tions, hyperspectral imaging brings additional information to the task, providing the spec- tral dimension associated with each image. Standoff infrared hyperspectral sensors using Fourier transform (FTIR) spec- and smoke candles are versatile countermeasures that can be used for different purposes, including protection of soldiers, positioning, rescue, communication, decoy, and screening. Ideally, their optimal design involves an accurate mixture of the different chemicals involved in their combustion. However, the gas clouds produced by these devices can be difficult to characterize. In the case of gases, intrusive analytical techniques are not always suitable, often requiring too much time to generate — a major drawback for field campaign efficiency, where rapid feedback about the validity of the ongoing field trial is crucial. Figure 1: The Telops Hyper-Cam compact standoff infrared hyperspectral imaging system (right) and its airborne version integrated in a gyrostabilized gimbal (left). troscopy can deliver a unique combination of spatial, spec- tral, and temporal resolution for a complete characterization. The technique has evolved from field experiments to multiple airborne platforms (see Figure 1) and now provides criti- cal information to military R&D; centers in various fields of application, ranging from surveillance to development of camouflage to characterization of gaseous emissions. Real-Time Characterization Of Smoke Candles The development of efficient countermeasure devices requires detailed characterization to suit their proper application. Flares 26 Electronic Military & Defense ■ Figure 2: Smoke candles used as screening agents www.vertmarkets.com/electronics Standoff infrared hyperspectral imaging provides key information in the characterization of countermeasure devices (see Figure 2). With the introduction of real- time signal processing to gas detection and identification software, the rich amount of information provided by infrared hyperspectral imag- ing can now be quickly obtained — gaseous infra- red-active chemicals can now be observed in real time. The spectral dimension in each image allows detec- tion and identification of the different chemical species based on their unique spec- tral signature. The selectivity provided by such techniques clearly improves efficiency during field trials. The simultaneous display of multiple gases present at different times during time-based experiments gives instan- taneous feedback to the operator. Chemical imaging of an ignited smoke candle at different stages of its combustion is illustrated in Figure 3. The ability to identify the simultaneous presence of differ- ent chemicals as a function of time allows efficient character- ization of the different stages of the combustion process as well as the position of these chemi- cals relative to the ignition spot.

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