Real-Time Quantification of Gas Leaks Using a Snapshot Infrared Spectral Imager

We describe the various steps of a gas imaging algorithm developed for detecting, identifying, and quantifying gas leaks using data from a snapshot infrared spectral imager. The spectral video stream delivered by the hardware allows the system to combine spatial, spectral, and temporal correlations into the gas detection algorithm, which significantly improves its measurement sensitivity in comparison to non-spectral video, and also in comparison to scanning spectral imaging. After describing the special calibration needs of the hardware, we show how to regularize the gas detection/identification for optimal performance, provide example SNR spectral images, and discuss the effects of humidity and absorption nonlinearity on detection and quantification.