Military Application of Differential FTIR Radiometry for Passive Standoff Detection
Abstract
For the past six years Defense R&D Canada Valcartier has been developing a method for the passive remote sensing of chemical vapors by differential Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) radiometry. The originality of the method lies in the use of a double-input beam FTIR spectrometer (CATSI) optimized for optical subtraction. This configuration automatically reduces the clutter-to-signal ratio and permits realtime monitoring of chemical agents. The passive standoff results obtained with the CATSI instrument at several major open-air field trials have shown that the system can successfully detect, identify and quantify a number of chemical vapors at various distances. In particular, the detection method has been used at short range (105 m) to map the column amounts of ammonia, methanol and several binary mixtures with consistent results. At medium range (1.5 km), the measurement technique has been successfully used to detect and identify low, medium and high concentrations of vapor mixtures of DMMP and SF6 but appears to have limited quantification capabilities in its original form. At long range, CATSI has successfully measured SF6 gas amounts at a standoff distance of 5.7 km at DRDC Valcartier. Many of the measurements have been made for complex mixtures of gases exhibiting a strong overlap of spectral bands. In addition, the CATSI sensor has been applied to the problem of passively detecting bioaerosols at ranges of up to 3 km. The instrument has also been shown to demonstrate some capability in detecting and identifying liquid CW contaminants on surfaces at standoff distances of up to 60 m. Very recently, the CATSI system has been employed to detect, identify and quantify classical CW agents and their simulants in an open-air field trial.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2005
- Accession Number
- ADA469503
Entities
People
- Denis Dube
- Eldon Puckrin
- Francois Bouffard
- Hugo Lavoie
- Jean-marc Theriault
Organizations
- DRDC Valcartier