Synthetic Aperture Ladar (SAL): Fundamental Theory, Design Equations for a Satellite System, and Laboratory Demonstration
Abstract
The carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR) resulting from phase-sensitive heterodyne detection in a photon-limited synthetic aperture ladar (SAL) is developed, propagated through synthetic aperture signal processing, and combined with speckle to give the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the resulting image. CNR and SNR are defined in such a way as to be familiar to the optical imaging community. Design equations are presented to allow quick assessment of the hardware parameters required for a notional system, most notably optical aperture sizes and the laser's power, chirp, and pulse rate capabilities. Some tutorial information on phase-sensitive heterodyne detection and synthetic aperture image formation is provided. The first two-dimensional synthetic aperture imaging in the optical domain is demonstrated in a laboratory setting.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 26, 2002
- Accession Number
- ADA409859
Entities
People
- Eric E. Funk
- John Reintjes
- Lee J. Rickard
- Mark Bashkansky
- Robert L. Lucke
Organizations
- United States Naval Research Laboratory