Paper
23 August 2005 Atmospheric effects on active illumination
Scot E. J. Shaw, Jan E. Kansky
Author Affiliations +
Abstract
For some beam-control applications, we can rely on the cooperation of the target when gathering information about the target location and the state of the atmosphere between the target and the beam-control system. The typical example is a cooperative point-source beacon on the target. Light from such a beacon allows the beam-control system to track the target accurately, and, if higher-order adaptive optics is to be employed, to make wave-front measurements and apply appropriate corrections with a deformable mirror. In many applications, including directed-energy weapons, the target is not cooperative. In the absence of a cooperative beacon, we must find other ways to collect the relevant information. This can be accomplished with an active-illumination system. Typically, this means shining one or more lasers at the target and observing the reflected light. In this paper, we qualitatively explore a number of difficulties inherent to active illumination, and suggest some possible mitigation techniques.
© (2005) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Scot E. J. Shaw and Jan E. Kansky "Atmospheric effects on active illumination", Proc. SPIE 5895, Target-in-the-Loop: Atmospheric Tracking, Imaging, and Compensation II, 58950D (23 August 2005); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.621117
Lens.org Logo
CITATIONS
Cited by 2 scholarly publications.
Advertisement
Advertisement
RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS
Get copyright permission  Get copyright permission on Copyright Marketplace
KEYWORDS
Atmospheric propagation

Fiber optic illuminators

Scintillation

Turbulence

Thermal blooming

Atmospheric modeling

Beam propagation method

Back to Top