Recent investigations into the use of new method of polarization remote sensing for the detection of camouflage targets in complex backgrounds have led to the need to understand the optical properties of military objects and backgrounds. The use of polarimetric signatures in remote sensing has been the subject of much study particularly; an understanding of camouflage materials properties and their variations is critical to detect the existence of these targets. Our study examined spectral polarization degree of camouflage materials within a meadow environment and presented a description of polarimetric scattering of materials. The result indicates that the polarimetric degree of camouflage materials is influenced by conditions of the incidence, azimuth angle and the surface roughness. Therefore, a spectral phenomenological model for the polarimetric scattering of camouflage materials was developed for the visible and infrared band to study these issues in more detail; the model considered the effects of solar rays and surface refractive index. From the model, it is clear that scattering light from the camouflage materials can be divided into two parts, surface scattering and volume scattering. Surface scattering acts as a function of polarization but volume scattering acts as a function of depolarization, and the method of polarization remote sensing can improve the understanding of camouflage detection.

Date Published: 4 August 2009
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 7383, International Symposium on Photoelectronic Detection and Imaging 2009: Advances in Infrared Imaging and Applications, 73830N (4 August 2009);

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7383:
International Symposium on Photoelectronic Detection and Imaging 2009: Advances in Infrared Imaging and Applications
Jeffery Puschell; Hai-mei Gong; Yi Cai; Jin Lu; Jin-dong Fei, Editor(s)