Atmospheric turbulence produces intensity modulation or "scintillation" effects, on both on the outward path and on the return path, that degrade laser radar (ladar) target acquisition, ranging, and imaging. Quantitative previous measurements of ladar scintillation have used tiny flat mirrors and corner-cube retro-reflectors as their objects. In actuality, the real finite sized objects create scintillation averaging on the outgoing path and the finite sized telescope apertures produce scintillation averaging on the return path. We will quantify these effects and compare them to the tiny mirror and corner-cube retro-reflector quantitative data from the literature. Methods for modeling the outward path and the inward path scintillation effects and the target produced laser-speckle over arbitrary focal plane array detector areas will be discussed. The analysis of the ladar receiver-operating-characteristic (ROC) and signal-to-noise ratio (SNRp) or mean squared over a variance will also be discussed.

Date Published: 4 June 2013
PDF: 16 pages
Proc. SPIE 8731, Laser Radar Technology and Applications XVIII, 87310V (4 June 2013); doi: 10.1117/12.2016201

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8731:
Laser Radar Technology and Applications XVIII
Monte D. Turner; Gary W. Kamerman, Editor(s)