Potential for the application of airborne hyperspectral remote sensing techniques to industrial inspection

Airborne optical remote sensing has recently seen an evolution from limited spectral discrimination into high spectral resolution imagery. Hyperspectral imagers now have the ability to sample a scene at both high spatial and high spectral resolution, permitting optimal selection from the available information to meet specific applications. Techniques have been developed which provide for high speed acquisition, radiometric calibration, conversion to spectral reflectances, geometric correction and interpretation of airborne hyperspectral data. The same technology currently in use for discrimination of subtle features in airborne scenes is available for industrial inspection applications which can benefit from combined spectral reflectance and imaging information.