The SBIR team sees multiple potential NASA applications for the proposed technology. Specific applications include: ? Ground-truth collection via satellite under-flight. A critical requirement for calibration of space-based instruments is the collection of ground-truth. The collection of calibrated airborne data during satellite over-flight should result in substantially more ground-truth information. ? The proposed system will support any low SWaP MWIR/LWIR framing architecture. This proposed system design will support the testing and evaluation of airborne MWIR and LWIR surrogates for eventual space-based instruments. ? Wide-area coverage to support Earth Science objectives. The system design that will be produced by this effort will allow for the use of small, fuel efficient aircraft, and should result in a cost-effective wide area collection technique to support multiple applications such as mapping of thermal gradients within aquatic systems, assess heat exchanges in urban environments, and pollution discharges from industrial complexes. ? The small form factor of the eGimbal and proposed MWIR/LWIR cameras will support integration to any NASA requirements for long duration, UAV or Airship platforms. The SBIR proposal team has identified multiple customers and applications outside the NASA SBIR community. These customers include the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and commercial GIS firms. Specific applications include: ? Identification and location of "hotspots" during the fighting of forest fires. The gimbal ability would allow future applications to queue and point the sensor system. ? Detection of water "boils" near levees and impound areas that can be indicative of future failures. ? Identify and locate natural and man-made heat sources from a day/night capable platform. ? Identification of effluents in waterways associated with industrial discharge.
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