Anders M. Jorgensen (New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology), H. R. Schmitt (Naval Research Laboratory & Computational Physics Inc), D. Mozurkewich (Seabrook Engineering), J. T. Armstrong (Naval Research Laboratory), S. Restaino (Naval Research Laboratory), R. L. Hindsley (Naval Research Laboratory)
Keywords: Adaptive Optics, Imaging
Abstract:
Geostationary satellites are generally too small to image at high resolution with conventional single-dish telescopes. Obtaining many resolution elements across a typical geostationary satellite body requires a single-dish telescope with a diameter of 10s of m or more, with a good adaptive optics system. An alternative is to use an optical/infrared interferometer consisting of multiple smaller telescopes in an array configuration. In this paper and companion papers1, 2 we discuss the performance of a common-mount 30-element interferometer. The instrument design is presented by Mozurkewich et al.,1 and imaging performance is presented by Schmitt et al.2 In this paper we discuss signal-to-noise ratio for both fringe-tracking and imaging. We conclude that the common-mount interferometer is sufficiently sensitive to track fringes on the majority of geostationary satellites. We also find that high-fidelity images can be obtained after a short integration time of a few minutes to a few tens of minutes.
Date of Conference: September 13-16, 2011
Track: Adaptive Optics & Imaging