Paul Lewis

NGA/IBE/Special Projects

571-557-5468

Paul.E.Lewis@nga.mil

1

The Evolution of Airborne

Chemical and Radiological

Remote Sensing

For Emergency and Natural

Disaster Response EPA

&

NGA

Collaboration

SPIE 2011 Remote Sensing Plenary Talk

• Why We Need Airborne Emergency Response Capability

Evolution of Core Emergency Response Requirements

Integration & Dissemination of Airborne Data To First Responders

• The Current Aircraft Sensor Suite

• Our Dedicated Airborne Chemical and Gamma Emission Spectroscopy Research & Development Support Program

Capabilities, Technical Approaches

• What an Emergency Response Looks Like & What We Are Trying To Evolve

• Some Interesting Mission Examples illustrating chronologically the evolution of:

Emergency Response

Disaster Response

Remote Sensing Capabilities, Data analysis and Reporting timelines, Information dissemination via our

Situational Awareness Tool (SAT), Products & formats

• Evolution of Infrared Airborne Water Quality Assessment (WQA)

• Current & Planned Technology Upgrades for the ASPECT Program

2

Airborne Spectral Photometric Environmental Collection Technology (ASPECT) Program

Outline

The United States Only Airborne

24/7 Operational CIVIL Emergency Response Chemical, Radiological, & Imaging Mapping Capability

Standoff Detection: Chemical

Gamma Ray Radiological

Imagery: High resolution

Ortho-rectified

Airborne Data Collection: Rapid Response (dispatch)

Wheels Up in Under 1 Hour

Operate below clouds

Automatic Data Processing: Real (or Near Real) Time

Direct Integration of data: Local Incident Commander

Joint Operations Centers

Local

Federal

Data Telemetry: Basic

Advanced

How it All Started Airborne Chemical, Radiological,

& Imagery Analysis Products Are Considered By First Responders

To Be Essential Situational Awareness Information

Terra Chemical Explosion -

1994

Evolution of Core Requirements

3

Integration of Airborne Data and Products Directly

to First Responders and Joint Operation Centers

ASPECT Team

Conducts and Reviews

Analysis

EPA Dispatches Aircraft:

Emergency

Location

Mission Specific Info

Priorities

Real-Time Onboard

Analysis Results

Emergency

Operations

Commercial

Voice

&

Data

Telemetry

4

EPA Releases Data

Current Airborne

Operational Sensor

Suite

•Day/Night MWIR-LWIR

•Calibrated Imaging

•60 deg. Field of View

•0.45 meter Pixel Size

•High Speed MWIR-LWIR

Fourier Transform Spectrometer

•Programmable Spectral Resolution

•High Resolution

Digital Cameras

+ Video

•Broadband Commercial

Satellite Data

Telemetry System

•Gamma Ray

Spectrometer

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Dedicated Airborne Chemical & Gamma Emission Spectroscopy

Research & Development Program

Approved For Public Release 09-033 7

Page 7

Controlled Plume Emission Experimentation & Measurement

for Evolution Validation and Verification of Automated Airborne

Real-Time Chemical Vapor Analysis Software

Controlled Plume

Emission Source

Calibration

Target

Downwind

Plume

Temperature

Monitoring

Basket

Ground-Based Up-Looking

FT-IR

Weather

Station

Down Looking

FT-IR

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L(λ) = τa(λ)εp(λ)B(λ,Tp) + τa(λ)τp(λ)εg(λ)B(λ,Tg) + εa(λ)B(λ,Ta)

Where:

L is the observed radiance

λ is the wavelength

τa is the atmospheric transmittance

τp is the chemical plume transmittance

εp is the emissivity of the chemical

B(λ,T) is the Planck function at temperature T

εg is the emissivity of the ground

εa is the emissivity of the atmospheric

constituents

Tp is the plume temperature

Tg is the ground temperature

Ta is the air temperature

Published, Peer Reviewed & Validated

Remote Chemical Vapor Species

Identification Methodology:

Evolution of Airborne Chemical Spectroscopy

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ASPECT Program Chemical Vapor Species Data Processing Method

• Multiple approaches have been explored

• Common goal is to minimize the influence of the background

Our Best Results Based Method 1. Segmentation of the Interferogram

Signal Processing in a 100 dimension interferogram space

2. FIR Filters Constructed Using a Supervised Optimization Approach

– Training Data Collected and Utilized to Construct Digital Band pass Filters (Not Necessarily True Matched Filters)

‾ Optimal FIRs for each point on the interferogram constitute a vapor species coefficient set

3. Raw interferograms are convolved with a coefficient set and input into our Pattern Recognition algorithm (SVM) to determine the presence or not of a particular vapor species

Evolution of Airborne Chemical Spectroscopy

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Wavenumber = 3,333 2,000 1,250 714

micron

1 J = 6.24x1012 MeV

0.624 MeV

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Gamma Ray Spectrum Evolution of Airborne Gamma Ray Spectroscopy

Existing Aircraft Configuration

6 NaI [Tl]

2 LaBr3

Up to 16 NaI [Tl] crystals; 4 units Potential Configuration*

* Requires Larger Aircraft Platform

•Two Gamma Ray Spectrometers

•3 2”x4”x16” Sodium Iodide

•1 3”x3” Lanthanum Bromide

Digital

Spectrometers

Evolution of Airborne Gamma Ray Spectroscopy

Gamma Emission Mapper (GEM)

Spectral Resolution

Altitude-Sensitivity Analysis

Calibration

Advanced Signal Processing Techniques

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Areas of Research:

Standard

Radiological Survey

Calculation Methodology

(Uranium) Example ASPECT Method

↓

Live time correction

↓

Subtract cosmic and aircraft background contribution

(3,000 ft AGL)

↓

“Test Line” Comparisons

Height correction (µ=0.0054m-1)

Calculate 214Bi ROI K-value (median)

↓

Subtract radon contribution (Test Lines)

↓

Determine net count rate for 214Bi (equivalent

Uranium),

and standard deviation (sigma value; σ)

↓

Determine Sigma Values (<-6σ, -6 to -4; -4 to -2; -2 to 2; 2 to 4, 4 to 6, >6σ)

↓

Create excess eU point plots

K-value =( Count rate in target region-of-interest)/(Count rate in background region-of-interest)

EXCESS eU = Measured eU ROI – (K * Measured Background ROI) 16

Evolution of Airborne Gamma Ray Spectroscopy

Airborne Gamma Ray Emission Survey Capability

Uranium Mine

Total Count Rate

Exposure Rate Uranium Concentration

Statistical Assessment

Evolution of Airborne Gamma Ray Spectroscopy

Approximately 5

Acres/Second

5 Sq. Mi. Surveyed

3 Hrs. Flt Time

All Data Collected, Calibrated and Analyzed using Validated and Peer Reviewed Methodologies

Full Survey Data

Transmitted via

SatCom

Processed in <10 Min.

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What Does an Airborne Emergency Response look like?

Wavenumbers

% T

rans

mis

sion

Flight 2 - 17107P47 scans 1105-1111

640 720 800 880 960 1040 1120 1200 1280 1360 144099.76

99.8

99.84

99.88

99.92

99.96

100

100.04

100.08

100.12 ASPECT aircraft spectra

Compound ID 1,3-Butadiene

What are we evolving?

Data Telemetry &

Automated Analysis

Shortening

Reporting Timelines

Capabilities of the sensor suite

Scope of products produced

Airborne

Chemical, Radiological Spectroscopy

Airborne Remote Sensing

Applied to Emergency Response

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Train Derailment Shepherdsville, KY January 2007

What Situational Awareness Information was needed

ASPECT was the first program to demonstrate the

Utility of a Google Earth® based data dissemination

and access capability Called SAT Tool, developed

specifically for Emergency Responders

Our SAT Tool is now considered as an accepted

standard by the Emergency Response Community

Google Earth application used to disseminate & access data

Available Airborne Sensor Suite Data

Ortho-rectified Color Imagery

Ortho-rectified Infrared Imagery Analysis

Products

Oblique aerial photography

Infrared Surface Oil Analysis Imagery

Infrared Surface Oil Trend Analysis Products

FT-IR Chemical Spectroscopy Data

FT-IR Chemical Analysis Information

Chemical Plume Analysis

Gamma Ray Spectroscopy Data

Gamma Ray Survey Information

Click ASPECT icon

Evolution of Airborne Mission Specific Data Products

Goal: Near-Real-Time data analysis & dissemination

of situational awareness products, information, & data

to first responders and joint operations centers

3-5 Micron Spectrum

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08:45 – Columbia Breaks up over Texas

09:00 – Initial Call to Ready Aircraft

09:15 – Status/Ready

09:30 – Call to EPA Region 6,

Flight Planning Initiated

10:00 – Plan Ready/Crew Briefed

16:00 – FEMA Declaration

Given/Wheels Up

First Aircraft on scene

Shuttle Columbia Emergency Response (February 1, 2003)

Mission and Constraints

Aviation Safety – Note AM: Use Caution Due to Falling Debris

Conduct Flight at Limit of Class E Airspace (17,500 Ft MSL) Normal collection Altitude 3000 ft.

Flight Path from Waco, Tx to Tibby, LA

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Reference Spectra of

MonoMethyl Hydrazine

Blow-up of Circled Area

N31036’55” W94051’01”

Green Area

SW of

White Area

Indicates Detection

Shuttle Columbia Emergency Response (February 1, 2003)

Mission: Detection and Location of Hydrazine Tank

2003 - 22 missions to date

Land aircraft to process data

7-8 hour analysis & reporting time

Activation call up procedure in place

First aircraft on scene Successful chemical

detection and identification

Basic radiological detection capacity installed

Infrared linescanner image of possible Hydrazine location

Airborne FT-IR Spectrometer

Hydrazine Identification

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2005 Hurricanes Katrina & Rita Disaster Response

Immediately After Landfall

•The ASPECT Aircraft was the first

reconnaissance aircraft on-scene

supporting FEMA Regions 4 & 6

•Mission Objectives:

Collect, process, & disseminate

Rapid Needs Assessment (RNA) data

to the Incident Command; 9 days,

15 missions, 64 Flt. Hrs.

•Concurrently conducted 5

emergency responses ranging

from fires to chemical releases

•Aspect Imagery & data briefed to

White House

•Incident command structure

not well organized

•Incident command structure

somewhat better organized

•Mission objectives:

More clearly defined,

provide RNA data on key

petrochemical facilities

to the Incident Command

•ASPECT team discovers several

active chemical releases,

data is rapidly forwarded to EPA

Region 6 and chemical facility

personnel all releases corrected

by facility response teams

•The ASPECT Aircraft was the first

reconnaissance aircraft on-scene

supporting FEMA Regions 4 & 6

Katrina August 29th Rita September 23rd

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August 2005 Hurricane Katrina Response

Mission: Locate Missing 1000 Gal. Tank of Chloroacetic Acid - 5 September 2005

ASPECT aircraft detected IR signature

of Chloroacetic Acid 1.2 miles from the

last known location of tanks

New Orleans

Wavenumber

Diffe

renc

e Un

its

FILE: 08905W36 Interferogram 1884 Wavenumber - FTIR

640 720 800 880 960 1040 1120 1200 1280 1360 1440-0.00075

-0.0006

-0.00045

-0.0003

-0.00015

0

0.00015

0.0003

0.00045

Water Vapor

Water Vapor

Water Vapor

ASPECT provided EPA HAZMAT

Team with chemical signature

coordinates HAZMAT found tanks

under a debris pile at this location

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Airborne FT-IR Spectrometer Chloroacetic Acid

Plume Classification and Identification

ICI Acrylics

30.013890 N

-94.02917 W

IR Multispectral

Linescanner Image

Wavenumbers

% T

rans

mitt

ance

FILE: 24905X21 1083FTIR Spectrum

640 720 800 880 960 1040 1120 1200 1280 1360 144097.5

98

98.5

99

99.5

100

100.5

101

AMMONIA

Ammonia

Release

Point

Visible Image N N

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September 2005 Hurricane Rita

Mission: Petrochemical Infrastructure Damage Survey

Airborne FT-IR Spectrometer

Ammonia

ASPECT aircraft provided release point

coordinates & chemical effluent

information directly to EPA Region 6

Incident Command & the facility response

team

Ammonia release stopped by

facility response team

New Orleans Areas Under Water

August 2005

6 days after Hurricane Katrina

700 900 1100 1300

Wavenumbers

-0.0008

-0.0006

-0.0004

-0.0002

0.0000

0.0002

Diffe

renc

e Un

its

Glycol

Near Beaumont, Texas

September 2005

4 days after Hurricane Rita

Wavenumbers

Dif

fere

nc

e U

nit

s

700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400-0.0014

-0.0012

-0.001

-0.0008

-0.0006

-0.0004

-0.0002

0

0.0002

0.0004

Glycol

Wavenumbers

Pe

rce

nt

Tra

ns

mis

sio

n

700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300 140096.6

96.8

97

97.2

97.4

97.6

97.8

98

98.2

98.4

98.6

98.8

Glycol

Coffeyville, Kansas Flooding

July 2007

4 days after flooding started

The FTIR spectrum is a close match to either propylene glycol,

2,3-butylene glycol, or ethylene glycol

Propylene glycol and 2,3-butylene glycol have extensive

documentation as fermentation products in the open scientific

literature.

The glycol spectra are only seen above standing water after 4

to 5 days with associated high temperatures.

Future investigations will focus on whether the glycol spectral

signature is an indicator of high biological activity in flood

waters.

These measurements may have utility for health resource

deployment after large floods or hurricane events.

Evolution of Infrared Airborne

Water Quality Assessment (WQA) First in the published literature Kroutil, R., Lewis, P. E., Thomas, M. J.,

Miller, D., Shen, S., Curry, T., "Preliminary

assessment of the utility of airborne infrared

spectroscopic analysis of emissions from a

variety of flooded areas in the United

States" in Imaging Spectrometry XII, edited

by Sylvia S. Shen, Paul E. Lewis,

Proceedings of SPIE Vol. 6661 (SPIE,

Bellingham, WA 2007) 66610K.

2008 - 84 missions to date

1 Hour turn around of data

Change of commercial

satellite data system

Redesign of airborne data

processing software to

one step processing

24 compound auto-search-chem-library

Implementation of

Google Earth based SAT Tool

Redesigned Geo-rectification code

Hurricane IKE, 2 TB of Data

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US Coast Guard Houma

US Coast Guard Mobile

NOAA

State of Louisiana

State of Mississippi

British Petroleum

EPA Region 4

EPA Region 6

EPA Headquarters

Deepwater Horizon Disaster Response April 28 to August 3, 2010

98 Days of continuous airborne operations under the direction of the National Response Incident Command Required temporary outfitting of second aircraft to support optimization of surface oil skimming

operations (used ASPECT backup instruments) 86 survey flights

3087 data collection runs 294 flight hours

2,544,000 infrared interferograms analyzed Over 4.5TB of data processed 14,972 digital photos 6,593 oblique photos 2,100 infrared images 372,000 unique users of the data Aspect Data Hosted by Google Earth ® Incident Command Users

Air quality monitoring during controlled burning of surface oil

Surface oil characterization and trend analysis

Optimize surface oil skimming operations

Missions:

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Evolution of Automated data processing, dissemination, and user accessibility

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Google Earth Hosted Data

2010 - 105 missions to date

5 MINUTE turn around of data

New high speed satellite data system

50 Compound auto-search-chem-library

True on-board one step chemical/radiological

/photo processing

Full ortho-rectification

Optimization of Google Earth ® dissemination engine

Upgrade of radiological Sensors

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Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Disaster Response Mission: Air Quality Monitoring (during controlled oil burns)

The aircraft Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer was used to detect vapor species in the air column

between the sea surface and the aircraft flying at 3000 ft during oil burning operations, collecting data both

downwind and over the burning oil source.

Analyses of the FTIR data showed:

Slightly elevated amounts of

Carbon dioxide, water vapor,

Carbon monoxide, Ozone

Trace amounts of 1,3-butadiene

& acetaldehyde.

*No polyaromatic hydrocarbons

(PAHs) detections in the air

column over & downwind

from oil burn sites

Hydrocarbons

CO2 and CO

bands

removed from

spectrum

Aldehyde

3-5 Micron Spectrum – Oil Fires May 19, 2010 2:19 PM CST

*Understanding the importance of not detecting

PAHs in the air column was extremely important

to recovery operations since PAHs are

hazardous to human health.

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Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Disaster Response Mission: Air Quality Monitoring (oil reclamation emissions)

The aircraft FTIR spectrometer measuring in the Midwave Infrared was used to analyze vapor species

in the recovery vessel gas burn off flair.

Oil reclamation

(May 18, 2010; methane flame)

Low Levels of 1,3 – Butadiene

Detected Downwind of Plume

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Note: ASPECT did not detect

Methanol in the Gulf of

Mexico during this incident

at any other location

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Disaster Response Mission: Air Quality Monitoring (area around the sunken rig)

The aircraft FTIR spectrometer detected the presence of methanol in close proximity to the location of the well

head and where the ASPECT IR and Visible imagery shows the leaking well head oil reaching the surface

The detected methanol source is believed to be the release of

injected methanol by the British Petroleum (BP) Company at the

well head to prevent the formation of methane hydrates in the line

that funneled oil to a surface recovery ship during the well

capping process

Methanol Detections

for

May 9, 2010

Sunken Rig

Location

Methanol Spectrum

16 cm-1 Resolution

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RED (surface oil) = 21.5%

GREEN (mixed oil/water) = 48.0%

BLUE (water) = 28.9%

CYAN (other) = 1.6%

ASPECT Designed Automated

Infrared Surface Oil Trend Analysis Tool

Automated Processing of IR Imagery

Rapid data turn around

No interpretation needed

Night Ops

Not severely affected by glare/glint

Enhances heavy & light oil

contamination

Provides percent oil coverage

automatically

Provides a quantitative metric for

conducting surface oil trend analysis

Missions:

Surface oil characterization

Surface oil trend analysis

Optimize surface oil skimming operations

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Disaster Response

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28.7427N, 88.2687W

Es

tim

ate

d p

erc

en

t o

f s

urf

ac

e a

rea

Ca

lcu

late

d f

rom

IR

are

a im

ag

ery

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Disaster Response

Mission: Surface oil Trend Analysis

Surface Oil Trend

(≈ 2 miles East of Platform)

Note: Sharp drop in Heavy Oil trend line after May 24th 2010 corresponds with the

application of subsurface and surface dispersants

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Infrared Line Scanner Upgrade •32 channel long wave design (Completed)

•Filters and Detector (Ongoing)

•Data Acquisition System (Ongoing)

•Advanced Compound Detection (Ongoing)

Multi-Pixel Spectrometer •8 Pixel wide field of view design (Completed)

•Off axis Telescope (Completed

•Base Unit Construction (Completed)

•System Testing (Ongoing)

Gamma Emission Mapper GEM

Program •Implementation of Standard Analysis Methods (Completed)

•Testing of Pattern Recognition Methods (Ongoing)

•Application of LaBr in Airborne System (Ongoing)

Planned Technology Upgrades

Mapping System Interface Card (MSIC) •Designed specifically as a low cost stand-alone mapping system for small aircraft

•Produces real-time ortho-rectified imagery

•Universal interface designed to integrate geo-spatial information directly into the

output data stream of COTS sensor systems

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