Multispectral or hyperspectral imaging system and method for tactical reconnaissance

An imaging system comprising, in combination:

• an electro-optical imaging array arranged as a plurality of rows and columns of individual pixel elements, said array organized into a plurality of sub-arrays of rows of said pixels, each sub-array being responsive to incident radiation from a scene of interest;
• a spectral filter arranged relative to said array simultaneously directing radiation in a plurality of different spectral bands for different portions of a scene of interest onto said array, said spectral filter and sub-arrays arranged in optical registry with one another whereby each of said sub-arrays receives radiation in one of said individual bands;
• a scanning device directing radiation from said scene of interest onto said imaging array, said array and scanning device constructed and arranged such that as said scene of interest is scanned over said array a given point in said scene of interest is sequentially imaged by each of said sub-arrays;
• and
• clocking circuitry for said imaging array clocking said individual pixel elements in each of said sub-arrays in a direction and at a rate to thereby increase the signal to noise ratio of said array.

A method of obtaining images of a scene of interest in multiple portions of the electromagnetic spectrum with a hyperspectral or multi-spectral imaging system aboard a reconnaissance vehicle, comprising the steps of:

• exposing a two-dimensional electro-optical array to said scene, said array arranged as a plurality of rows and columns of individual pixel elements, said array organized into a plurality of sub-arrays of rows of said pixels,
• controlling the wavelength of the radiation impinging on each of said sub-arrays wherein each sub-array images a different band of the electromagnetic spectrum while said array is exposed, wherein said sub-arrays are exposed to said scene of interest at the same time, with each of said sub-arrays imaging a different portion of said scene of interest simultaneously in a particular band of the spectrum;
• operating a scanning device for said array so as to scan across said scene of interest while said array is exposed to said scene to thereby direct adjacent portions of said scene of interest onto said imaging array;
• and
• while said imaging array is exposed to said scene, clocking individual pixel elements of said array in a direction and at a rate to thereby increase the signal to noise ratio of the collected signal.

Imaging apparatus for use in a system obtaining hyperspectral or multi-spectral images, comprising, in combination:

• an electro-optical imaging array arranged as a plurality of rows and columns of individual pixel elements, said array organized into a plurality of sub-arrays of rows of said pixels, each sub-array being responsive to incident radiation from a scene of interest;
• and
• a multi-spectral or hyper-spectral filter placed in registry with said electro-optical imaging array, said filter defining a plurality of individual filter bands arranged in optical registry with said sub-arrays whereby each of said sub-arrays receives radiation passing through one of said individual filter bands,
• wherein each of said sub-arrays has separate and variable clocking of pixels in the column direction depending on the spectral responsiveness of the material forming said sub-array.

Imaging apparatus for use in a system obtaining hyperspectral or multi-spectral images, comprising, in combination:

• an electro-optical imaging array arranged as a plurality of rows and columns of individual pixel elements, said array organized into a plurality of sub-arrays of rows of said pixels, each sub-array being responsive to incident radiation from a scene of interest;
• and
• a multi-spectral or hyper-spectral filter placed in registry with said electro-optical imaging array, said filter defining a plurality of individual filter bands arranged in optical registry with said sub-arrays whereby each of said sub-arrays receives radiation passing through one of said individual filter bands;
• wherein each sub-array has a predetermined number of rows depending on the spectral responsiveness of the material forming said sub-array.

Imaging apparatus for use in a system obtaining hyperspectral or multi-spectral images, comprising, in combination:

• an electro-optical imaging array arranged as a plurality of rows and columns of individual pixel elements, said array organized into a plurality of sub-arrays of rows of said pixels, each sub-array being responsive to incident radiation from a scene of interest;
• and
• a multi-spectral or hyper-spectral filter placed in registry with said electro-optical imaging array, said filter defining a plurality of individual filter bands arranged in optical registry with said sub-arrays whereby each of said sub-arrays receives radiation passing through one of said individual filter bands
• wherein each of said sub-arrays is separated from an adjacent sub-array by an output transfer register;
• and
• wherein said output transfer register extends across the entire width of said array, wherein said array comprises a plurality of sub-arrays each extending in the row direction and across the entire width of said array, and wherein during an exposure of said array each sub-array simultaneously images a different portion of the scene of interest and the spectral content of the entire scene of interest is captured by scanning said scene of interest across all of said sub-arrays with a scanning device.