Snapshot hyperspectral imaging

With the arrival of large-format detector arrays in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a series of new snapshot hyperspectral imaging techniques were developed to take advantage of the new technology: a method which uses a fiber bundle at the image plane and reformatting the fibers in the opposite end of the bundle to a long line,[4] viewing a scene through a 2D grating and reconstructing the multiplexed data with computed tomography mathematics,[5] the (lenslet-based) integral field spectrograph,[6] a modernized version of Bowen's image slicer.

[7] More recently, a number of research groups have attempted to advance the technology in order to create devices capable of commercial use.

[13][14] Slitless spectroscopy can be considered a basic snapshot hyperspectral imaging technique.

Spaced point-like sources, such as a sparse field of stars, is a requirement to avoid spectrum overlap on the detector.

One of the main reasons for the popularity of snapshot devices in the astronomical community is that they offer large increases in the light collection capacity of a telescope when performing hyperspectral imaging.

Example of a snapshot hyperspectral imaging spectrometer.
Example of a snapshot hyperspectral imaging spectrometer. The scene is viewed through a lenslet array. Each lenslet transmits the light it receives to the fiber to which it is coupled. The bundle of fibers is reformatted and lined up at the entrance slit of a conventional grating spectrometer , which disperses the light across the entrance slit onto its detector.
Data cube acquired by the Very Large Telescope.
Data cube acquired by the Very Large Telescope .