Apparatus for registering and analyzing the spectral signature of a dynamic event

Apparatus for registering the spectral signature of a dynamic source event, the apparatus comprising:

• an imaging-sensor array configured to register electromagnetic energy over a predetermined range of electromagnetic wavelengths;
• an optical system configured for imaging onto the imaging-sensor array a dispersion pattern of electromagnetic energy emitted from a source event external to the optical system, the optical system including (i) a focusing element and (ii) optical dispersion apparatus including a first set of optically dispersive elements that disperses a first selected set of wavelengths within the sensitivity range of the imaging-sensor array and a second set of optically dispersive elements that disperses a second selected set of wavelengths within the sensitivity range of the imaging-sensor array such that wavelengths emitted from a source event that are within the first and second selected sets of wavelengths impinge simultaneously upon the imaging-sensor array along, respectively, a first extrapolated axis and a second extrapolated axis that is non-parallel to the first extrapolated axis;
• and
• a data processing system having a central processor and a computer memory communicatively linked to the processor;
• wherein
• (i) the imaging-sensor array is communicatively linked to the data processing system such that data indicative of a dispersion pattern registered at the imaging-sensor array can be stored in the computer memory;
• and
• (ii) each of the first and second sets of optically dispersive elements comprises at least one of (i) a prism, (ii) a diffraction grating and (iii) a grism.