Abstract: An advanced infrared (IR) Sensor based on the present invention would add the following two elements to a basic staring IR sensor using a 2 dimensional array of detector elements to significantly enhance the detection sensitivity of the device. The added features are: (1) Additional optics or modification to the normal optics to scan the image over a small fraction of the array dimensions so that each point in the image is sampled by a number of different detector elements, and (2) signal processing to combine the multiple samples for each image point so as to exclude the effects of "dead", "weak" or excessively noisy detector elements and average out the element to element sensitivity variations and calibration/correction imperfections of the "normal" elements.

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.