Light weight airborne imaging spectrometer remote sensing system for mineral exploration in China

Imaging spectrometers provide the unique combination of both spatially contiguous spectra and spectrally contiguous images of the Earth's surface that allows spatial mapping of these minerals. One of the successful applications of imaging spectrometers remote sensing identified was geological mapping and mineral exploration. A Light weight Airborne Imaging Spectrometer System (LAISS) has been developed in China. The hardware of the compact LAISS include a VNIR imaging spectrometer, a SWIR imaging spectrometer, a high resolution camera and a position and attitude device. The weight of the system is less than 20kg. The VNIR imaging spectrometer measures incoming radiation in 344 contiguous spectral channels in the 400–1000 nm wavelength range with spectral resolution of better than 5 nm and creates images of 464 pixels for a line of targets with a nominal instantaneous field of view (IFOV) of ~1 mrad. The SWIR imaging spectrometer measures incoming radiation in the 1000–2500 nm wavelength range with spectral resolution of better than 10 nm with a nominal instantaneous field of view (IFOV) of ~2 mrad. The 400 to 2500nm spectral range provides abundant information about many important Earth-surface minerals. A ground mineral scan experiment and an UAV carried flying experiment has been done. The experiment results show the LAISS have achieved relative high performance levels in terms of signal to noise ratio and image quality. The potential applications for light weight airborne imaging spectrometer system in mineral exploration are tremendous.