ABSTRACT
This chapter describes a collection of performance models of three exemplary hyperspectral imager systems. These models simulate the performance of different designs of the hyperspectral imager systems. With these simulated performances, evaluation and analysis as well as trade-off can be performed on different system designs. This process helps optimize the system design before a real hyperspectral imager is actually built. For each hyperspectral imager system design, modeling includes signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), modulation transfer function (MTF), spectral response, and spatial response. In the modeling of SNR, a detailed analysis of the signal mode, noise mode, and saturation signal mode is provided. The SNRs of the three systems are calculated and evaluated in the trade-off study. The best hyperspectral imager system is selected in terms of the SNR. In modeling the MTF of the systems, MTFs in both the cross-track and along-track directions are included. The MTF in the cross-track direction takes into account the MTFs of optics, detector, and diffusion, whereas the MTF in the along-track direction also considers the smear effect in addition to the effects of optics, detector, and diffusion.
