Integrated photonics for hyperspectral sensing

Northrop Grumman (NG) is developing a photonic waveguide-based imaging spectrometer that promises to dramatically reduce instrument size, weight and power and enable image acquisition in modes not possible with current hyperspectral imagers (HSIs). The objective of our current effort is to develop this novel hyperspectral technology for eventual application to the NASA Sustainable Land Imaging (SLI) mission. For more than 40 years the Landsat program has provided the Earth science community with highly accurate global multispectral imagery (MSI) to monitor our planet and ecosystems. Through extensive modeling and simulation NG has demonstrated that a versatile HSI sensor can meet the goals for a sustainable land imager. Our photonic spectrometer represents a step forward for hyperspectral imaging, providing a path to an extremely compact instrument that will provide fully co-registered spectral and spatial data across the instrument’s field of view.