Push broom scanner

The scanners are regularly used for passive remote sensing from space, and in spectral analysis on production lines, for example with near-infrared spectroscopy used to identify contaminated food and feed.

Different areas of the surface are imaged as the spacecraft flies forward.

A push broom scanner can gather more light than a whisk broom scanner because it looks at a particular area for a longer time, like a long exposure on a camera.

One drawback of push broom sensors is the varying sensitivity of the individual detectors.

Another drawback is that the resolution is lower than a whisk broom scanner because the entire image is captured at once.

Visualization of how a push broom scanner captures imagery. The dark purple squares represent the subset of the area seen by the scanner at any given time and the lighter purple squares show previously scanned areas.