Douglas Hope (Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii), Stuart Jefferies (Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii and Steward Observatory, University of Arizona), Cindy Giebink (Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii)
Keywords: Imaging
Abstract:
The USA has significant civilian and military assets in geostationary orbit. High-resolution, ground-based imaging of these assets enables us to monitor in detail their health and safety and to detect the presence of any foreign microsatellites that might be in proximity. Although adaptive optics compensation of ground-based imagery imparts some level of mitigation of the deleterious effects due to the Earth’s turbulent atmosphere, the correction is far from optimal and there is usually ample room for further improvement in resolution through image post processing. Here we show that significant gains in image fidelity and detection sensitivity can be achieved during the image post processing by the injection of prior information on the wave-front phases via wave-front sensing data and wave/phase-diverse data. The gains are such that it is possible that AEOS could become a practical resource for high-fidelity imaging and detection of GEO targets.
Date of Conference: September 16-19, 2008
Track: Imaging