A Hyperspectral Thermal Emission Spectrometer (HyTES) for High Altitude Applications

The Hyperspectral Thermal Emission Spectrometer (HyTES) is an airborne imaging spectrometer developed by JPL and originally configured on the Twin Otter aircraft. The instrument utilizes a thermal infrared Dyson imaging spectrometer and provides 256 spectral channels between 7.5 and 12 micrometers with 512 spatial pixels cross-track over a 50 degree field of view. HyTES has successfully completed multiple campaigns on the low altitude Twin Otter platform and is now capable of routinely capturing multi-species gas plumes over urban and other science-applicable environments. Current system upgrades and modifications are underway to configure HyTES on the ER-2 high altitude aircraft. The ER-2 aircraft will fly at an altitude greater than 18 km (60,000 ft) and provide a wide swath width with 35 m ground pixel size. High altitude observations from HyTES on the ER-2 platform will be used to support HyspIRI TIR measurement development. The modifications to the system maintain the capability of the HyTES instrument on the Twin Otter aircraft and a new vacuum enclosure significantly reduces both the mass and volume of the instrument scanhead. The current instrument performance, upgrades, and specifications of the high altitude system will be presented.