Calibrated Long-Wave Infrared (LWIR) Thermal and Polarimetric Imagery of Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Birds

Abstract

We report a series of both radiometric and polarimetric calibrated long-wave infrared (LWIR) imagery of a variety of small/micro-sized unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and birds recorded at Ft. Sill, OK, during the April 56 2017 time period. The goal of this report is to produce a set of well-calibrated imagery, both conventional LWIR thermal (watts/cm2-sr) and its corresponding polarimetric imagery (percent radiance polarized), in order to evaluate the ability for distinguishing between small UAVs and birds of similar size and dimensions. Thermal and calibrated Stokes images (S0, S1, and S2) and the degree-of-linear-polarization were recorded using a research grade LWIR polarimetric camera system, which is based on a spinning-achromatic-retarder optical design. Target imagery was recorded at various distances ranging from 0.54.0 km during various periods of the diurnal cycle. Regions of interest (ROI) for each image were generated that encompassed either the target region only or the corresponding background (i.e., target ROI and background ROI), respectively.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 2018
Accession Number
AD1059353

Entities

People

  • Kristan P. Gurton

Organizations

  • United States Army Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Autonomy

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Achromatic
  • Aircrafts
  • Cameras
  • Department Of Defense
  • Detection
  • Field Tests
  • Focal Planes
  • Linear Polarization
  • Long-Wavelength Infrared Radiation
  • Polarization
  • Radiance
  • Short-Wavelength Infrared Radiation
  • Thermal Images
  • Two Dimensional
  • Unmanned
  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
  • Vehicles

Readers

  • Aerial Unmanned Vehicle Swarm Micro Periodontal Dentistry.
  • Atmospheric Remote Sensing.
  • Image Processing and Computer Vision.

Technology Areas

  • Autonomy