Design and Concept of the Compact Infrared Camera (CIRC) with Uncooled Infrared Detector

The compact infrared camera (CIRC) is one of technology demonstration payloads of Small Demonstration-Satellite type-3 (SDS-3). The CIRC is an infrared camera equipped with an uncooled infrared array detector (microbolometer). Microbolometers have an advantage of no requirement of cooling mechanisms such as a mechanical cooler. The main mission of the CIRC is the technology demonstration of the wildfire detection using the microbolometer. In this paper, we show the details of the design and concept of the CIRC. We also show preliminary results of feasibility study of the wildfire detection and other applications using thermal infrared images.