Feasibility study of synthetic aperture infrared laser radar techniques for imaging of static and moving objects

Techniques for two types of 10-mu m band synthetic aperture infrared laser radar using a hypothetical reference point target (RPT) are presented. One is for imaging static objects with a single two-dimensional scanning aperture. Through the simple manipulation of a reference wave phase, a desired image can be obtained merely by the two-dimensional Fourier transformation of the correlator output between the intermediate frequency signals of the reference and object waves. The other, with a one-dimensional aperture array, is for moving objects that pass across the array direction without attitude change. We performed imaging by using a two-dimensional RPT correlation method. We demonstrate the capability of these methods for imaging and evaluate the necessary conditions for signal-to-noise ratio and random phase errors in signal reception through numerical simulations in terms of feasibility. (C) 1998 Optical Society of America.