HyMap - Airborne Hyperspectral Sensors - Overview
After the first sensor became operational in 1996, the HyMap series of airborne hyperspectral scanners have been deployed in a large number of countries, undertaking hyperspectral remote sensing surveys in support of a wide variety of applications ranging from mineral exploration to defense research to satellite simulation.
The HyMap systems have set the benchmark for commercially available hyperspectral sensors in terms of signal to noise ratio, image quality, stability, adaptability and ease of use. For a large community of remote sensing users (both government and commercial) in Nth America, Europe, Africa and Australasia, their first exposure to high quality hyperspectral imagery was via a HyMap series sensor.
The evolution of the HyMap series continues with the development of a system providing hyperspectral coverage across the solar wavelengths (0.4 - 2.5 um) and 32 bands in the thermal infrared (8 - 12 um).
Features:
- Modular design for ease of customisation
- Designed to operate in harsh environments
- Adaptable to wide range of aircraft
- High signal to noise ratio
- Large FOV
- No image defects
- High spectral resolution and wide wavelength coverage
- On-board calibration sources
- Integrated IMU
- Sensor in-the-loop calibration procedures
- Adaptable to gyro-stabilised platforms
- Simple operator interface
The design of the HyMap series of airborne hyperspectral sensors features an opto-mechanically scanned fore-optics combined with modular, high efficiency spectrographs and optimised detector arrays.
Once the baseline performance requirements have been established, the various sub-system designs can be readily adapted and optimized to provide the client with a "world best" sensor.
The table below provides an indication of either typical design and operational parameters or the range over which the HyMap concept can be readily adapted.
The HyMap systems can also be supplied with a turn-key calibration facility designed around a "sensor in the loop" concept. The resultant calibration precision is comparable to that achieved at JPL for the AVIRIS sensor.
