A Long-wavelength IR Sensor for Water Drop Temperature Measurement

This proposed research aims to develop an LWIR imaging sensor to enable real-time, in-situ measurements of temperatures and size distributions of airborne supercooled water droplets. The proposed sensor will use an LWIR camera for 2D imaging of the water droplets. By calibrating temperature and intensity of small water drops in the icing tunnel, the water droplets will be imaged to obtain size distribution information. The temperature of the water droplets will be determined based on the LWIR emission intensity. Phase I will focus on the design, fabrication, and demonstration of the sensor system in a research icing tunnel. Phase II will involve the application and testing of the sensor system in NASA’s icing wind tunnel.

Instrumentation for measuring supercooled water droplet temperatures is essential for the NASA Icing Research Tunnel facility. Currently, no commercial products are available that can effectively meet the needs for fast, real-time water droplet temperature detection or monitoring. To date, no research studies have attempted to measure water droplet temperatures in ground-based facilities or lab-scale wind tunnels. The proposed LWIR sensor can effectively address this problem and fill this gap in the field. Additionally, the LWIR sensor can be used for temperature measurements across a wide range, making it highly applicable in many of NASA’s large ground test facilities, such as low-temperature hypersonic wind tunnels, cryogenic tunnels, combustion facilities, scramjets, engines, and more. In addition to its relevance for NASA missions, the sensor system can also be applied to various commercial applications, including aircraft icing prediction, wind turbine icing prevention, UAV icing prediction, and extreme weather forecasting to ensure reliable operations. The LWIR sensor offers significant advantages over a wide range of temperature measurement techniques. It has potential applications across various federal agencies, such as the U.S. Air Force, Navy, Army, NOAA, FAA, as well as aerospace companies like Boeing, Airbus, Lockheed Martin, GE, Pratt & Whitney, and Raytheon.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

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