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The advantage of a spectrometer operating in space over a multispectral scanner,

which samples only bands of extended spectral intervals, as hinted at before, is that
it samples essentially the full continuum of wavelengths (actually, with present
technology, very narrow individual bands that are wavelength contiguous). This
illustration helps to clarify the point just stated:

A stationary reflectance spectrometer, looking through a collimating lens at a ground

scene, breaks the light into wavelengths emanating from the fixed view. When such
a spectrometer is flown on an aircraft or spacecraft, a problem with recording the
light arises because the scene moves past the lens (or the spectrometer swings
across the scene) at high speed. Older types of detectors didn't have enough time to
record the ever-changing field of view, that is, the electronics couldn't sample the
dispersed light fast enough to resolve it into the closely -spaced wavelengths needed
to construct a spectral curve. Instead, they recorded the light as broad bands, in the
manner of Landsat-type scanners.

The technology for a scanning spectrometer that could sweep across moving terrain,
while sampling at narrow wavelength intervals, had to await a bre akthrough. This
breakthrough came with the advent of Charge -Coupled Detectors (CCD's). A CCD is
a microelectronic semi-conducting metal chip that detects light. Radiation produces
an electron charge on the chip in proportion to the number of photons receiv ed,
which is governed by the intensity and exposure time. The charge must be rapidly
removable, resetting the CCD for the next influx of photons, such as those coming
from the next part of the scene..

A chip is extremely small (tens of micrometers). It is made of some light-sensitive

material, such as the silicon used in computer microchips. Normally, we mount
hundreds of them on an insulator backing, in a line or a two -dimensional array.
Consider a linear array of, say, 2,000 chips per inch. If we allow l ight to enter through
lenses and strike the array simultaneously from one end to the other, then each chip
will receive light from a small part of the scene. Adjacent chips will get their light from
adjacent ground or air locations. Thus, the instrument sa mples a line of finite width
and length on the ground or in the air.

Each chip, accruing a charge representative of the arriving photon batch, is a pixel
that defines a spatial resolution, which depends on the chip size and the height
(distance) of the chip array above (from) the scanned scene. After an instant of dwell
time over the scene, all of the chips discharge sequentially (producing a signal
stream for a recording device) to reset for the next batch. The chips have a high
signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio, which allows, in the brief moment, enough buildup of
electrons, coupled with gain amplification, to yield usable signals. After a single
exposure, and the spacecraft moves on a small distance, the process repeats for the
next line of the ground scene. T he advance of the linear array, similar to the forward
motion of a wide "pushbroom", generates a succession of varying electronic signals
that the instrument converts into an image, in which the range of gray levels relate to
the signal strengths.

A variant of the linear array is the two -dimensional array, which receives and records
light from rectangular ground scenes on multiple lines of chips. Or, another mode
uses a rocking or rotating mirror to sweep across the array.

A sensor that uses CCD elements can be multispectral if it uses several arrays, each
dedicated to a wavelength band, for which a bandpassing filter determines the
bandwidth. SPOT's sensor uses CCD arrays and red, green, and infrared filters to
create its multispectral data set.

But, these broad-band sensors do not provide hyperspectral data, that is, they do not
sample the spectrum in narrow intervals. To accomplish this, the sensor detector
must consist of many parallel rows of chips, each dedicated to a narrow wavelength
interval, that the recorder can sample (CCDs discharged) extremely rapidly. Imagine
a two-dimensional array that is several hundred chips wide and 200 or so long. Let
the light enter the sensor through a telescope or focusing lens, impinge upon a
moving-mirrored surface, and then pass through a diffraction grating, which
disperses the light over a spectral range in the direction of the array length (which is
also the same direction of forward motion of the sensor). At one instantaneous
position of the mirror, the li ght from the ground activates the first pixel chip in the
array width-wise, and at the same time, does so for the other wavelength arrays (the
spectral dimension). The recorder electronically samples lengthwise the first chip in
each line. Next the mirror moves widthwise to the next ground spot and the light from
it spreads its spectral dispersion lengthwise. The mirror continues progressively to
complete the equivalent of one ground sweep. While this happens, the sensor
moves on to look at the next ground position and the whole scanning -dispersing
process repeats.

As the instrument proceeds along its flight path or orbit, the final result is a vast
collection of data that has both spatial and hyperspectral inputs. From the data set,
we can construct images using individual narrow spectral bands associated with
small plots on the ground. Or, we can tie spectral data for any pixel position across
the width to the wavelengths sampled lengthwise, to plot a spectral curve for that
piece of the surface. With special modifications, we can image the atmosphere, if
that is the target.

This, in a general way, describes how AVIRIS and other hyperspectral imaging
spectrometers operate. JPL's AVIRIS uses diffraction gratings with two sets of CCD
arrays, one with silicon chips to sense in the visible range and the other with Indium -
Antimony (InSb) chips for wavelengths in the Near -IR to Short-Wave-IR range. A
refrigeration unit cools the detectors with liquid nitrogen for optimum performance.
There are 224 detectors (chan nels) in the spectral dimension, extending over a
range of 0.38 to 2.50 µm. This arrangement leads to a spectral resolution for each
chip of 0.01 µm. By choice, the units that the remote sensing industry adopted for
reporting hyperspectral data is the nano meter (nm); 1000 nm = 1 µm. The resolution
stated this way is 10 nm, and the range of coverage is 380 to 2500 nm (0.38 - 2.5
µm). AVIRIS gathers its light through a 30 ° field of view, sending diffracted light to the
614 individual CCD's in the width (acros s flight) direction. An oscillating mirror scans
the scene and sends the incoming radiation to sweep across the array. The spatial
resolution derived from this depends on the platform height. A typical mission,
mounting AVIRIS on a NASA aircraft (ER -2), produces a spatial resolution of about
20 meters, but that can be improved to five meters by flying at lower altitudes, which,
of course, narrows the width of the ground coverage.

This is a picture of AVIRIS:

And this is an example of an AVIRIS spectral curve for a single pixel:

The stacking under the pixel at top is meant to denote the multiple 224 10 nm
channels, whose values we plotted to attain this curve; abscissa increments = 0.15
µm.

Another way to visualize the relationship between an image developed in the usual
color compositing manner, but using just three 10 nm data values at different
wavelengths, and the spectral variations over the interval sampled is to depict this as
a Hyperspectral Cube:
Here, the front face of the cube is a color image made from the reflectances
associated with three narrow spectral bands in the visible region. On the top and
right front sides are the external edges of the thin planes representing each narrow
band. The top corresponds to the low end of the spectrum and the bottom the high
end. The reflectances for those pixels located along the top and right lines of the
cube have been color-coded to indicate various intensity ranges. Black through
purple and blue are assi gned to low reflectances. Yellow through red and then white
denote high reflectances.

Here is another hyperspectral cube, with a twist on the information presented:

At the top is the spectral curve for a single pixel. On the side are four more spectral
curves. These were derived from the cube data for pixels in which the stated class
name dominates. The top pixel is a mixed pixel composed of weighted contributions
from each of the classes that are present in the ground correspoinding to the pixel.
We will show some selected AVIRIS results on the next page. Since AVIRIS, many
other imaging spectrometers have been constructed and put online. You can choose
a list of most of these, in tabular form.

One of these is HYDICE, developed by the Navy, for aerial use. It has 210 channels,
each with a spectral resolution of about 10 nm, extending from 413 to 2,504 nm. It
uses a prism as the spectral dispersion device. The spatial dimension is defined by a
row of 320 pixels. When flown at low altitudes, HYDICE yields images with
resolutions approaching one meter.

Another instrument, developed in Europe, is DAIS, the Digital Airborne Imaging

Spectrometer, which uses a diffraction grating to obtain spectral cove rage between
450 and 2,500 nm. Its 72 channels collect radiation in three spectral intervals: 400 -
1200 nm (bandwidth 15 -30 nm); 1,500-1,800 nm (bandwidth 45 nm); 2,000 -2,500 nm
(bandwidth 20 nm). The gaps coincide with atmospheric absorption bands. As
separate sensors using the same optics, it also has a single broad -band channel
between 3,000-5,000 nm and six channels that operate within parts of the 8,000 -
14,000 nm interval. These bands provide important information on thermal emissions
from ground objects. Flown low, it provides one -meter resolution imagery for strips a
few kilometers wide.

For most systems, the diffraction grating or the prism accomplishes the dispersion,
but other techniques of separating the spectrum include interference filters,
acoustical-optical filters, liquid crystal tunable filters, Michelson interferometers,
Fourier Transform interferometers, and multi -order etalons. Chips made of mercury-
cadmium-tellurium (MCT) or platinum silicide are sensitive to certain usable
wavelength intervals.

Hyperspectral sensors are beginning to make their way into space on unmanned
satellites - part of the trend towards operating these powerful imagers that can yield
much more information than those now on Landsat, SPOT, and others. As
introduced in the Overview (see page I-2), EO-1, launched in November 2000, had
both a standard 9 band sensor (ALI) and a 220 band hyperspectral sensor
(Hyperion). We show a Hyperion flight strip across San Jose, CA below on the left
and the larger ALI image on the rig ht which includes the strip area (on its left):
The Canadian Centre for Remote Sensing has developed an airborne hyperspectral
instrument called Probe-1. Here is the rock units map produced from several of its
bands for an area in northern Canada (Arct ic):

In 2001, ESA launched its experimental Proba satellite which included CHRIS
(Compact High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer) that images 18 by 18 km targets
at 18 meter resolution. CHRIS can use its CCD sensors to produce 200 narrow
bands. An example of a CHRIS image, with bands chosen to produce a false color
composite, is this view of the Ardennes in Belgium.