Coastal shallow waters explorer imaging spectrometer for aerial remote sensing of shallow waters in UV-VIS-NIR broadband.

Advancements in technology have widened the limits of hyperspectral imaging of remote sensing in mapping shallow water benthic habitats and bathymetry. This paper provides a novel airborne imaging spectrometer for the field. The device, composed of an off-axis two-mirror telescope and an advanced Dyson spectrometer working in the ultraviolet-visible near-infrared region, has been designed, fabricated, and evaluated. It maintained high optical performance, with a pixel spatial resolution better than 0.5 mrad, spectral resolution of 3.5 nm, field of view of 28°, and a high numerical aperture for high SNR in 330-900 nm. The imaging spectrometer will help to obtain a combination of the spectral and textural characteristics of bottom features in shallow waters. These features could result in the ability to map habitats over large coastal systems.