The HICO program - hyperspectral imaging of the coastal ocean from the International Space Station

The HICO (hyperspectral imager for the coastal ocean) program is a collaboration between the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), the University of Hawai´i at Manoa, Utah State University, and NovaSol Inc., to image the coastal ocean and reef systems from the International Space Station. The first phase of the program will install the NRL portable hyperspectral imager for low light spectroscopy (PHILLS) in the Station Window Observational Research Facility (WORF), which has a nadir-facing optical window. The PHILLS will image in 10 nm bands over the wavelength range 400 to 1000 nm, and is designed to provide a signal-to-noise greater than 200 to 1 when viewing the relatively dark coastal ocean, coral, or on-shore vegetation. These images and ground truth will be used to develop and verify algorithms for water optical properties, chlorophyll, CDOM, bathymetry, bottom type, coral reef status, and to classify on-shore vegetation. The second phase of the program will install the University of Hawai´i MAHI short wave infrared hyperspectral imager in the WORF. This paper introduces the HICO program, and discusses the PHILLS and its implementation for HICO