Model-based Exploration of HSI Spaceborne Sensor Requirements with Application Performance as the Metric

As an aid to the requirements analysis of future spaceborne hyperspectral imaging systems, an example study is presented which uses an analytical performance prediction model to study application performance as a function of system parameters. In particular, the forecasting and analysis of spectroradiometric system performance (FASSP) model is used to refine requirements for spatial resolution, spectral resolution, and aperture size in an unresolved road detection application. Results show roads as small as 5 meters could be detected with a system having 5 meter ground resolution, 10 nm spectral resolution, and a 0.25 meter aperture operating from 450 km altitude.