The potential impact of hyperspectral imagery on amphibious warfare planning

Abstract

Military image analysts primarily use panchromatic and radar images to aid situational awareness in preparing a mission plan. Although analysts rely on these two formats, there are situations where these two sensors are unable to detect potential threats, i.e. buried mines. The Department of Defense has proposed using a hyperspectral sensor to detect threats that otherwise may not be detected by existing sensors. In order to determine the utility of hyperspectral imagery for mission planning, a task analysis was conducted at two Joint Intelligence Centers to measure image analysts' preferences to infrared, radar, panchromatic, and hyperspectral imagery during an amphibious planning process. The results showed that the image analysts were most confident using panchromatic imagery for the majority of the planning tasks; however, the analysts exhibited uncertainty for other tasks, such as detecting buried mines. Further analysis showed that image analysts could reduce their uncertainty in detecting buried mines and producing bathymetric maps by using hyperspectral imagery. Although hyperspectral imagery reduced uncertainty during mission planning, operators report that this imagery is confusing. To integrate hyperspectral imagery in mission planning, image analysts must be trained to interpret a hyperspectral scene and understand how to exploit its spectral characteristics