2015 SLI-T Projects Awarded
Six Projects Awarded Funding Under the Sustainable Land Imaging-Technology (SLI-T)) Program
(2015 ROSES A.47 Solicitation NNH15ZDA001N Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences)
08/02/2016 – NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC, has selected proposals for the Sustainable Land Imaging-Technology Program in support of the Earth Science Division (ESD).
The goals of the SLI-T program are to research, develop, and demonstrate new measurement technologies that improve upon the Nation’s current land imaging capabilities while at the same time reducing the overall program cost for future Sustainable Land Imaging measurements.
The SLI-T solicitation was targeted to technology development activities aimed specifically at: (1) demonstrating improved, innovative, full-instrument concepts for potential infusion into the architecture and design of Landsat-10; and (2) development and technical maturation at the component and/or breadboard-level of technologies that have long-term potential to significantly improve future land imaging instruments and systems through substantial architecture changes. The ESD has selected 6 out of a total of 33 received proposals in response to this solicitation. The first-year funding for these investigations is approximately six and half million dollars.
The awards are as follows (names hyperlinked to the project abstracts below):
| Thomas Kampe, Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation Compact Hyperspectral Prism Spectrometer |
| Jeffery Puschell, Raytheon Corporation Advanced Technology Land Imaging Spectroradiometer (ATLIS) |
| Stephanie Sandor-Leahy, Northrup Grumman Systems Corporation Sustainable Land Imaging Technology: Integrated Photonic Imaging Spectrometer |
| David Ting, Jet Propulsion Laboratory Long Wavelength Infrared Focal Plane Array for Land Imaging |
| Paula Wamsley, Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation Reduced Envelope Multi-Spectral Imager (REMI) |
| Ben Yoo, University of California, Davis Multi-Spectral, Low-Mass, High-Resolution Integrated Photonic Land Imaging Technology |
Thomas Kampe, /Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation
Compact Hyperspectral Prism Spectrometer
The Sustainable Land Imaging (SLI) program will inform the acquisition of Landsat-like measurements for at least the next two decades. To improve on current land imaging capabilities, SLI aims to develop a new generation of smaller, more capable, and less costly instruments that can meet or exceed current imaging capabilities. This proposal offers a Compact Hyperspectral Prism Spectrometer (CHPS), a visible-to-shortwave (VSWIR) prism imaging spectrometer that offers a path to enhanced science while maintaining continuity with legacy Landsat multispectral measurements. CHPS’ innovative prism spectrometer design avoids the straylight shortcomings of other imaging spectrometer forms and accommodates full aperture, full optical path calibration to ensure the high radiometric accuracy required to meet the SLI measurement objectives.
This proposal leverages Ball’s investments to support SLI. A Ball-funded CHPS prototype spectrometer was designed, built, aligned and tested in the laboratory, specifically to find a better approach to SLI. In addition, Ball has an in-depth appreciation of Landsat requirements from its successful development of Landsat-8/OLI and the on-going OLI-2 programs.
The objective of this program is to mature the CHPS imaging spectrometer technology for infusion into the Landsat program. This is achieved through technology development, airborne demonstration, data product distribution and development in conjunction with science collaborators, and maturation of the instrument technology for spaceborne demonstration. We propose a three year program that begins at TRL-3 and exits at technology readiness of TRL-6.
The 2013 NRC report Landsat and Beyond: sustaining and Enhancing the Nations Land Imaging Program recommended that the nation should “maintain a sustained, space-based, land-imaging program, while ensuring the continuity of 42-years of multispectral information.” We are confident that our proposal provides a path to this achieve this goal while enabling new science measurements and reducing the cost, size, and volume of the VSWIR instrument.
Jeffery Puschell, Raytheon Corporation
Advanced Technology Land Imaging Spectroradiometer (ATLIS)
The Advanced Technology Land Imaging Spectroradiometer (ATLIS) is a small (0.04 m3), multispectral pushbroom imager designed to provide visible through shortwave (VSWIR) calibrated imagery for bands 1-10 of the baseline Sustainable Land Imaging-Technology (SLI-T) reference mission architecture. ATLIS benefits Sustainable Land Imaging by providing imaging spectroradiometry that meets or exceeds SLI-T Reference Mission Architecture (RMA) parameters with an instrument that has 160x less volume and 16x less mass than the Landsat 8 (L8) Operational Land Imager (OLI), based on analysis completed in support of this proposal and during Raytheon’s Sustainable Land Imaging (SLI) Reduced Instrument Envelope (RIE) Study for NASA GSFC and USGS in 2015. The intent of the proposed work is to build and test a single spectral band prototype ATLIS and demonstrate whether this wide field of view (WFOV), fast optics, small detector design approach with Time Delay and Integration (TDI) to improve Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) achieves its promise by meeting or exceeding SLI-T VSWIR requirements for spatial and temporal coverage, spatial performance, radiometric SNR, pixel-to-pixel uniformity, saturation radiance, polarization sensitivity, radiometric stability, dead, inoperable and out-of-spec detectors. Period of performance is 19 months. Overall entry TRL is 3 with planned exit TRL of 5.
Stephanie Sandor-Leahy, Northrup Grumman Systems Corporation
Sustainable Land Imaging Technology: Integrated Photonic Imaging Spectrometer
Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems (NGAS) proposes to build and demonstrate an integrated photonic imaging instrument, which promises to revolutionize spectral sensing and offers a cost effective and sustainable path to future land imaging needs and architectures. The Landsat program has provided critical sensing of our Earth for over 40 years, delivering essential products and understanding of changing land use to scientists and users around the world. It is imperative that we continue and extend these measurements with a system that is affordable and resilient for future Earth imaging needs. Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) promises access to new land analysis techniques and data products through the measurement of image scenes at high spectral resolution while maintaining critical continuity with traditional Landsat data products.
Through our work on the Sustainable Land Imaging (SLI) Reduced Instrument Envelope Study and the ESTO Novel Concepts for SLI Study, NGAS has demonstrated a thorough understanding of SLI mission, instrument and calibration requirements, and we have shown that a versatile HSI instrument can meet SLI instrument goals. To advance photonic imaging technology, NGAS has developed proof-of-concept waveguide filters and detectors in the Shortwave Infrared (SWIR) range on IR&D. Under the Black Diamond program we are implementing first level integration technology for mating the waveguide filters with photodetectors. We will leverage these developments to build a prototype SLI-T instrument that represents a revolutionary step for land imaging.
Our objectives for the SLI-T Advanced Technology Demonstrations program are to build and test a next-generation, heterogeneously integrated photonic instrument covering two SLI bands 9 (1.36 – 1.39 µm, 3nm resolution ) and 6 (1.56 – 1.66 µm, 6nm resolution). To maximally use existing designs for rapid progress, we are executing the prototype instrument development on SWIR wavelengths. The photonic/electronic design, manufacture, integration, and test processes developed for the SWIR are directly scalable to the 0.4 – 1.0 µm Visible Near-Infrared wavelength range. The benefits of using lithographically patterned photonic waveguide technology are a total instrument mass and volume reduction of ~7x and ~25x respectively compared to the current MSI approach. It enables image acquisition in spectral bands and modes not possible with current land imaging instruments bringing new land products to users from an extremely compact, scalable instrument.
Our proposed SLI-T effort starts with our existing photonic designs. We will optimize waveguide geometry, develop the detector layer and fabricate the waveguides and detectors. We will implement waveguide/detecotor integration using our Diverse Accessible Heterogeneous Integration process developed in our microelectronics foundry. We will also develop a high-performance CMOS Read-Out Integrated Circuit (ROIC) customized for integration with the waveguide and detector layers. We will demonstrate the integration of multiple waveguide/detector/ROIC layers into a photonic HSI instrument for SLI SWIR wavelength ranges. These layers will be thinned to enable stacking into a compact and monolithic structure. The integrated SLI-T instrument will be tested in a relevant environment. NGAS proposes a one year program with options for years 2-5 to mature the instrument from an entry TRL 3 to an exit TRL 6 with defined yearly milestones.
Our integrated photonic/microelectronic manufacturing uses standardized, repeatable processes. Ultimately, these devices will be rapidly and inexpensively patterned and reproduced in large quantities enabling hyperspectral data acquisition in miniature packages and modes not possible with current instruments. Such a capability opens the field of imaging spectrometry from traditional remote sensing to low cost commercial applications including agriculture, manufacturing, biomedicine and consumer electronics.
David Ting, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Long Wavelength Infrared Focal Plane Array for Land Imaging
The proposed project focuses on demonstrating a high-performance long-wavelength infrared (LWIR) focal plane array (FPA) technology with the flexibility to meet different possible future land imaging needs, including: (1) higher operating temperature for reduction in size, mass, power, and volume, (2) compact instrumentation for small satellites, (3) multispectral or hyperspectral imaging for richer science returns, (4) improved temporal and spatial resolution imaging. Previously, the choice of LWIR FPAs has been limited to either HgCdTe (MCT), or the quantum well infrared photodetector (QWIP), each with its strengths and weaknesses. The type-II superlattice (T2SL) high operating temperature (HOT) barrier infrared detector (BIRD) developed at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has recently emerged as an improved alternative which combines the high operability, spatial uniformity, temporal stability, scalability, producibility, and affordability advantages of the QWIP FPA with the superior quantum efficiency (QE) and dark current characteristics of the MCT detector.
Invented in 2010, the HOT-BIRD is already highly successful in the mid-wavelength infrared (MWIR). The MWIR HOT-BIRD exhibits the same salient FPA characteristics as InSb, but at a 50K higher operating temperature. This reduces cooling requirement and prolongs instrument lifetime. MWIR HOT-BIRD is a lower-cost alternative to MCT like InSb, but with much better performance. In 2013 the MWIR HOT-BIRD was validated in a series of environmental tests in a NASA OCT Game Changing Technology project. An MWIR HOT-BIRD FPA is a key demonstration technology in the (6U) CubeSat Infrared Atmospheric Sounder (CIRAS) selected by the NASA InVEST Program (ESTO). The MWIR HOT-BIRD FPA is also baselined in a CIRAS-related NOAA Earth Observation Satellite-IR (EON-IR) concept study for Advanced Imager-Sounder. Co-Proposing institution L-3 Cincinnati Electronics (L-3 CE), a leading IR imaging systems manufacturer, has already successfully delivered several hundred imaging systems based on the JPL MWIR HOT-BIRD to many U.S. Government customers for a variety of applications. The patented L-3 CE silicon-on-silicon FPA process enables very-large-format FPAs with high uniformity and operability. L-3 CE has demonstrated MWIR HOT-BIRD FPAs in 1K×1K, 2K×2K, and 4K×4K formats. In 2013, L-3 CE transitioned JPL’s MWIR HOT-BIRD technology into a compact sensor core with integrated dewar-cooler assembly (IDCA) and electronics for use on unmanned aerial systems (UAS’s), where size, weight, and power (SWaP) is crucial. A new version with a larger cooler can accommodate VLWIR FPAs and still fits within a 3.5”×3.25” ×4.75” envelope.
A key advantage of the HOT-BIRD is extensibility to LWIR while maintaining high operability and uniformity. Recent advances in LWIR and very long-wavelength infrared (VLWIR) HOT-BIRD has led to the demonstration of high quantum efficiency (QE) devices. To meet the diverse long-term thermal IR land imaging needs, long-time collaborators JPL and L-3 CE jointly propose a VLWIR HOT-BIRD FPA development effort based on recent JPL enhanced QE devices. The proposed activities will benefit from substantial L-3 CE internal R&D funding contributions. Proposed demonstrations and objectives include:
1. Baseline high-QE VLWIR HOT-BIRD in LandSat-8 TIRS instrument format FPA, with the objective of achieving 20K higher operating temperature (63K instead of 43K), leading to reduction in cooler size, mass, power, and volume.
2. Hyperspectral imaging characterization of enhanced-QE HOT-BIRD FPA, to provide future capabilities with richer science returns.
3. Compact VLWIR sensor core as a pathfinder for small satellite imaging.
4. Very large (2048×2048) format FPA as a pathfinder to wide-swath, high-resolution imaging application capable of 184 km swath, 60 m ground resolution, using a single non-scanning monolithic FPA operating at 63K.
Paula Wamsley, Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation
Reduced Envelope Multi-Spectral Imager (REMI)
The Reduced Envelope Multispectral Sensor (REMI) represents a new sensor architecture that meets all heritage LandSat requirements (Visible through Thermal IR) in a single payload. Low Size, Weight, and Power (SWAP) is achieved through reduced aperture (relative edge response improved with precision scan pattern that eliminates ground motion smear), combined aperture (visible through thermal IR), and new, lower SWaP calibration source. This is a step-stare scan architecture rather than the whisk broom or push broom scan architecture of prior LandSat sensors. Compatibility with launch from an ESPA ring also reduces launch costs.
REMI validation includes airborne flights that will under fly LandSat 8 for direct comparison of level 1b data and higher data products. Airborne flights will also be conducted over sites with validated ground-based observations as a second, independent check of performance.
One goal of the Sustained Land Imaging Technology opportunity is to “Reduce the risk, cost, size, volume, mass, and development time for the next generation SLI instruments, while still meeting or exceeding the current land imaging program capabilities”. REMI directly addresses this need. When implemented in a constellation, REMI also has the potential to address the goals of improved temporal coverage while still maintaining the program’s operational efficiency and ensuring the continuity of land observations into the future.
Ben Yoo, University of California, Davis
Multi-Spectral, Low-Mass, High-Resolution Integrated Photonic Land Imaging Technology
Through a combination of design, fabrication and testing research efforts, this proposal aims to demonstrate an electro-optical (EO) imaging sensor concept that provides a low mass, low-volume alternative to the traditional bulky optical telescope and focal plane detector array utilizing multi-layer photonic integrated circuit technologies fabricated using CMOS compatible processes.
Conventional approach for imaging interferometers requires complex mechanical delay lines to form the interference fringes resulting in designs that are not traceable to more than a few simultaneous spatial frequency measurements. The proposed solution can achieves this traceability by employing micron scale optical waveguides and nanophotonic structures fabricated on a silicon PIC with micron scale packing density to form the necessary interferometers.
The period of performance is three years from 09/01/2016 to 08/31/2019. The proposed project currently utilize the TRL level of TRL3 to early TRL4 for the single photonic layer PIC technologies, and the TRL3 for the multiple photonic layer PIC technologies. Through the proposed 3 year project, we plan to enhance the multiple photonic layer PIC technologies to TRL5 or above. Successful progress of the proposed project also may allow possible infusion to system level projects through a subsequently proposed efforts in coming years.