Patent ID: 8269171

Claim:
A method for detecting and identifying a gas plume, the method comprising: receiving, by a processor, a request regarding a region of interest including a gas plume; detecting, by a detector in communication with the processor, spectral radiance from the region of interest to detect first and second detected spectral radiance data; creating, by the processor, at least a first image and a second image from the first and second detected spectral radiance data; co-registering, by the processor, the first and second images to produce a first co-registered image and a second co-registered image, comprising: a) selecting a spectral wavelength; b) performing a pixel level comparison of the first and second images for the selected spectral wavelength to determine if an equivalent spectral wavelength value exists between the first and second images; c) if an equivalent value exists between the first and second images, using the location of the pixel having the equivalent value to align the first and second images; and d) if an equivalent value does not exists between the first and second images, selecting another spectral wavelength and returning to step b); subtracting, by the processor, the first co-registered image from the second co-registered image to produce a difference image; generating, by the processor, a cluster region around a difference region in the difference image; analyzing, by the processor, the spectral radiance from the cluster region to produce a spectral characteristic curve; and correlating, by the processor, the spectral characteristic curve against a library to identify the gas plume.