Spectrographic system that compresses fourier transform spectral data and associated methods

A spectrometer for space-borne use comprising:

• an interferometer;
• a detector array downstream from the interferometer;
• and
• a spectrometer controller configured to
• cooperate with the detector array to collect Fourier Transform Spectral (FTS) data,
• generate and quantize Principle Component Analysis (PCA) scores from the collected FTS data,
• generate an approximate interferogram based upon the quantized PCA scores and the collected FTS data,
• encode the quantized PCA scores,
• generate residual differences based upon a difference between the FTS data and the approximate interferogram,
• quantize and encode the residual differences, and
• generate compressed FTS data based upon the quantized and encoded PCA scores and the quantized and encoded residual differences to be sent to a ground-based processor.

A ground-based processor for use with a space-borne spectrometer configured to generate compressed Fourier Transform Spectral (FTS) data from collected FTS data, the ground-based processor comprising:

• a receiver configured to receive the compressed FTS data from the space-borne spectrometer, the compressed FTS data comprising quantized and encoded PCA scores and quantized and encoded residual differences, the quantized and encoded residual differences being based upon a difference between the collected FTS data and an approximate inteferogram;
• and
• a ground-based controller coupled to the receiver and configured to
• decode and inverse quantize the quantized and encoded PCA scores from the compressed FTS data,
• decode and inverse quantize the quantized and encoded residual differences from the compressed FTS data, and
• generate decompressed FTS data from the decoded inverse quantized, quantized and encoded PCA scores and the decoded inverse quantized, quantized and encoded residual differences.

A spectrographic method comprising:

• operating a space-borne spectrometer controller to
• cooperate with a detector array to collect Fourier Transform Spectral (FTS) data,
• generate and quantize Principle Component Analysis (PCA) scores from the collected FTS data,
• generate an approximate interferogram based upon the quantized PCA scores and the collected FTS data,
• encode the quantized PCA scores,
• generate residual differences based upon a difference between the FTS data and the approximate interferogram,
• quantize and encode the residual differences, and
• generate compressed FTS data based upon the quantized and encoded PCA scores and the quantized and encoded residual differences to be sent to a ground-based processor.