Apparatus and method for remotely detecting the presence of chemical warfare nerve agents in an air-released thermal cloud
First Claim
1. An apparatus for remotely detecting the presence of chemical warfare nerve agents in an air-released thermal cloud, comprising:
- means for collecting incident infrared radiation emitted by said air-released thermal cloud;
means for focusing the collected infrared radiation;
means for selectively filtering the focused infrared radiation;
means for detecting the selectively filtered infrared radiation;
means for converting the detected infrared radiation into a plurality of thermograms; and
means for comparatively analyzing the image contrasts among said plurality of thermograms,whereby comparative analyses of the variations in image contrasts among said plurality of thermograms generated by selectively filtering the infrared radiation emitted by said thermal cloud indicates the presence or absence of chemical warfare nerve agents in said thermal cloud
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Abstract
An apparatus and method for remotely detecting the presence of chemical ware nerve agents in a suspect thermal cloud. Infrared radiation emitted by a suspect thermal cloud is analyzed by means of a forward looking infrared thermal imager equipped with a spectral filter wheel having four passband filters; three of the spectral filter elements are spectrally optimized to respond to infrared radiation emissions characteristic of chemical warfare nerve agents. The variations in image contrasts of the thermograms generated by selectively filtering the infrared radiation emitted by the suspect thermal cloud are compared to determine the presence or absence of chemical warfare nerve agents in the suspect thermal cloud.
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Citations
13 Claims
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1. An apparatus for remotely detecting the presence of chemical warfare nerve agents in an air-released thermal cloud, comprising:
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means for collecting incident infrared radiation emitted by said air-released thermal cloud; means for focusing the collected infrared radiation; means for selectively filtering the focused infrared radiation; means for detecting the selectively filtered infrared radiation; means for converting the detected infrared radiation into a plurality of thermograms; and means for comparatively analyzing the image contrasts among said plurality of thermograms, whereby comparative analyses of the variations in image contrasts among said plurality of thermograms generated by selectively filtering the infrared radiation emitted by said thermal cloud indicates the presence or absence of chemical warfare nerve agents in said thermal cloud - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A method for remotely detecting the presence of chemical warfare nerve agents in an air-released thermal cloud, comprising the steps of:
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aligning said thermal cloud within the field-of-view of an apparatus for remotely detecting the presence of chemical warfare nerve agents; collecting incident infrared radiation emitted by said thermal cloud; focusing the collected infrared radiation; selectively filtering the focused infrared radiation; detecting the selectively filtered infrared radiation; converting the detected infrared radiation into a plurality of thermograms; and comparatively analyzing the image contrast among said plurality of thermograms, whereby comparative analyses of the variations in image contrasts among said plurality of thermograms generated by sequentially filtering the infrared radiation emitted by said thermal cloud indicates the presence or absence of chemical warfare nerve agents in said thermal cloud. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. In combination with a thermal viewer with an objective lens and a far infrared detector sensitive to a broad band of infrared frequencies, a subsystem for distinguishing one cloud of a first gaseous compound from an alternative cloud formed from a second gaseous compound when backlighted by a substantially uniform spectral distribution of light in the far infrared, comprising:
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a filter wheel mounted in said viewer between said objective lens and said detector having at least three apertures therein; one of said apertures being arranged to pass all far infrared frequencies in said broad band; each remaining aperture containing a filter which transmits only one of a group of different narrow bands of frequencies; and means mounted on said viewer to move said filter wheel so that said apertures are sequentially centered on the optical axis of said lens. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13)
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Specification