SENSOR: a tool for the simulation of hyperspectral remote sensing systems

The consistent end-to-end simulation of airborne and spaceborne earth remot e sensing systems is an important task, and sometimes the only way for the adaptation and optimisation of a sensor and its observation conditions, the choice and test of algorithms for data processing, error estimation and th e evaluation of the capabilities of the whole sensor system. The presented software simulator SENSOR (Software Environment for the Simul ation of Optical Remote sensing systems) includes a full model of the senso r hardware, the observed scene. and the atmosphere in between. The simulato r consists of three parts. The first part describes the geometrical relatio ns between scene, sun, and the remote sensing system using a ray-tracing al gorithm. The second part of the simulation environment considers the radiom etry. It calculates the at-sensor radiance using a pre-calculated multidime nsional lookup-table taking the atmospheric influence on the radiation into account. The third part consists of an optical and an electronic sensor mo del for the generation of digital images. Using SENSOR for an optimisation requires the additional application of task-specific data processing algori thms. The principle of the end-to-end-simulation approach is explained. all relev ant concepts of SENSOR are discussed. and first examples of its use are giv en. The verification of SENSOR is demonstrated. This work is closely relate d to the Airborne PRISM Experiment (APEX). an airborne imaging spectrometer funded by the European Space Agency. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All ri ghts reserved.