Earth Observation from a High Orbit: Pushing the Limits with Synthetic Aperture Optics

Abstract

The resolution of a diffraction limited optical telescope is inversely proportional to its diameter; the latter is limited by the current technology to about 10 meters for ground-based systems, and even more limited by volume and mass constraints for space-based systems. Synthetic Aperture Optics (SAO) is a technique that allows the breaking of this limit; it consists in making an array of telescopes (or of mirrors) interfere, so that the data contains some high resolution information% at spatial frequencies given by the separation of the telescopes (or %baseline") rather than by their sizes. In this communication, we first briefly review the two types of SAO instruments (called "Michelson" and "Fizeau") and the possible types of beam combination, We then study the possibility of obtaining wide-field interferometric imaging for a Michelson instrument.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 01, 2000
Accession Number
ADP010822

Entities

People

  • B. Sorrente
  • F. Cassaing
  • G. Rousset
  • L. M. Mugnier

Organizations

  • Office National d'Études et de Recherches Aérospatiales

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Sensors
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Adaptive Optics
  • Data Processing
  • Detectors
  • Diffraction
  • Focal Planes
  • Frequency
  • Frequency Domain
  • Ground Based
  • High Altitude
  • High Resolution
  • Image Processing
  • Image Restoration
  • Interferometers
  • Optical Interferometers
  • Simulations
  • Space Based
  • Transfer Functions

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Image Processing and Computer Vision.

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Space Objects