The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 10, 2002
Filed:
Jul. 29, 1999
William A. Seidler, Brownsboro, AL (US);
Muamer Zukic, Huntsville, AL (US);
Edward L. Fry, Brownsboro, AL (US);
Charles H. Hill, Huntsville, AL (US);
William Blackwell, Madison, AL (US);
Jaycor, San Diego, CA (US);
Abstract
A remote sensor for detecting a nuclear source, comprises: a Field-of-View (FOV) structure having an aperture therethrough of area A and a Field-of-View (FOV) angle, the FOV angle centered on a source, and subtending a solid angle &OHgr; to the nuclear source; a plurality of optical filters for filtering photons outside a selected Ultraviolet (UV) band and for transmitting in-band photons according to a selected Transfer Function defining an out-of-band rejection ratio and an in-band transmittance ratio for the selected UV band, the Transfer Function supporting a sensor sensitivity S at the selected UV band for the Field-of-View (FOV) structure to support a Signal-to-Noise ratio of greater than one (1) to detect a nuclear source of nuclear material having a brightness of at least about IR, the selected UV band being selected such that naturally occurring in-band photons are at a brightness of about less than 10 R during daylight and are not naturally occurring at night up to about 20 km Earth altitude, and the in-band photons have a mean free path in air large enough and a radiative emission rate short enough to allow the in-band photons to reach the Field-of-View structure; and an optical camera having pixels configured to receive the in-band photons transmitted through the optical filters for measuring the in-band photons, the in-band photons being emitted from airglow caused by ionizing radiation from the nuclear material.