OBJECTIVES AND BENEFITS: DESIGN BUILD ASSEMBLE TEST AND FLY A 6U CUBESAT LOW EARTH ORBITAL (LEO) DEMONSTRATION OF HYTI (HYPERSPECTRAL THERMAL IMAGER) AS A PATHFINDER ENABLING THE NEXT GENERATION OF HIGH SPATIAL SPECTRAL AND TEMPORAL RESOLUTION THERMAL INFRARED (TIR) IMAGERY ACQUISITION FROM LEO. MONITORING GLOBAL HYDROLOGICAL CYCLES AND WATER RESOURCES AND DEVELOPING A DETAILED UNDERSTANDING OF THE MOVEMENT DISTRIBUTION AND AVAILABILITY OF WATER AND ITS VARIABILITY OVER TIME AND SPACE IS A CRITICAL NEED FOR NASA S DECADAL STRATEGY FOR EARTH OBSERVATION FROM SPACE. AN ASSOCIATED NEED IS THE MEASUREMENT OF LAND SURFACE DYNAMICS BY MONITORING THE CONTINUOUS VARIABILITY OF LAND SURFACE TEMPERATURE (LST). WHILE LEO HYPERSPECTRAL TIR OBSERVATIONS WILL ENABLE DETAILED MEASUREMENTS OF BOTH HYDROLOGICAL AND LST VARIABILITY THE FOCUS WILL BE ON ENABLING AGRICULTURAL REMOTE SENSING. HYTI WILL BE DESIGNED TO INVESTIGATE THE FOLLOWING FOOD AND WATER SECURITY ISSUES: 1. MAPPING BOTH IRRIGATED AND RAINFED CROPLAND AREAS; 2. DETERMINING CROP WATER USE (ACTUAL EVAPOTRANSPIRATION (ET)) OF MAJOR WORLD CROPS 3. ESTABLISHING CROP WATER PRODUCTIVITY ("CROP PER DROP") OF MAJOR WORLD CROPS. OUTLINE OF THE PROPOSED WORK: THE HAWAII INSTITUTE OF GEOPHYSICS AND PLANETOLOGY IS THE HYTI PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR AND LEAD FOR THE SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY WBS ELEMENT. THE HAWAII SPACE FLIGHT LABORATORY IS RESPONSIBLE FOR PROGRAM MANAGEMENT SYSTEM ENGINEERING AND EFFORTS IN ALL WBS ELEMENTS:1 THROUGH 11. NASA'S JET PROPULSION LABORATORY WILL SUPPLY THE BARRIER INFRARED DETECTOR (BIRD) FOCAL PLANE ARRAY (FPA) UNDER WBS ELEMENT 5. SARANIASAT INC. WILL SUPPORT THE SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY WBS ELEMENTS. THE HYTI TECHNOLOGIES TO BE SPACE VALIDATED FOR THE FIRST TIME VIA LEO FLIGHT ARE: 1. HYPERSPECTRAL IMAGER: THE HYTI HYPERSPECTRAL IMAGER INSTRUMENT WILL BE DESIGNED AND DEVELOPED BY HSFL AND HIGP. BOTH HSFL AND HIGP HAVE A WELL-ESTABLISHED TRACK RECORD OF DESIGNING AND SUCCESSFULLY DEMONSTRATING STATE-OF-THE-ART SMALL SATELLITES AND IMAGING PAYLOADS RANGING FROM THE VISIBLE TO THE IR INCLUDING COMPACT HYPERSPECTRAL IMAGING FOR REMOTE-SENSING OBSERVATIONS. BASED ON THE FABRY-PEROT INTERFEROMETER PRINCIPLE THE HYTI HYPERSPECTRAL IMAGER IS A UNIQUE INSTRUMENT (TRL 5) AND WILL DELIVER SPATIAL RESOLUTION SIMILAR TO CURRENT LANDSAT-8 PERFORMANCE BUT WITH HIGHER SPECTRAL RESOLUTION. IN A 430 KM ORBIT THE HYTI INSTRUMENT WILL HAVE GROUND RESOLUTION OF 60M FOR UP TO 50 SPECTRAL SAMPLES IN THE 8.0-10.7 MICRON RANGE WITH A PEAK SNR OF ~500:1. HIGP HAS SUCCESSFULLY DEMONSTRATED THE PROPOSED NO MOVING PARTS HYPERSPECTRAL IMAGER FOR A WIDE RANGE OF DOD PROGRAMS AS WELL AS FOR A NASA IIP. 2. TIR IMAGER FOCAL PLANE: THE HEART OF THE HYTI HYPERSPECTRAL IMAGER IS A 2 DIMENSIONAL BIRD FPA DESIGNED AND DEVELOPED AT JPL. BIRD IMAGERS HAVE HIGH UNIFORMITY LOW COST LOW NOISE AND HIGHER OPERATING TEMPERATURES THAN PREVIOUSLY-FLOWN TIR FPAS. JPL WILL SUPPLY THE 2D FPA WITHIN AN INTEGRATED DEWAR COOLER ASSEMBLY TO HSFL. 3. HIGH-PERFORMANCE ONBOARD COMPUTING: ONBOARD COMPUTING HAS BEEN THE HOLY GRAIL OF SCIENTIFIC REMOTE-SENSING MISSIONS. THE HIGH VOLUME OF RAW HYPERSPECTRAL IMAGERY JUSTIFIES THE IMPLEMENTATION OF OBC. SARANIASAT INC. HAS DEVELOPED FAST LOW COMPUTATIONAL FOOTPRINT ALGORITHMS FOR WEAK-SIGNAL DETECTION SENSOR FUSION AND ORTHORECTIFICATION WHICH WHEN OPERATING ON THE ADVANCED UNIBAP E2160 HETEROGENEOUS OBC PLATFORM PROMISE TO ACHIEVE FAST TURNAROUND (WITHIN 24 HRS OF ACQUISITION) OF THE PROCESSED DATA AND PRODUCTS. PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE: CONSTRUCTION OF THE FLIGHT MODEL: 24 MONTHS; HYTI FLIGHT DEMONSTRATION: 1 MONTH NOMINAL MISSION. EXTENDED MISSION AFTER 1 MONTH; TOTAL PROJECT PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE: 36 MONTHS.