Design and calibration of a CW coherent laser radar
Abstract
The design, calibration and performance of a CW coherent laser radar testbed system is described. Detector responsiveness and detector noise in a heterodyne system is considered. A detailed evaluation of beam propagation and phase front matching is given. The final system is supplemented with a digital image memory, a galvanometer scanner and a boresighted TV camera. Analysis of images obtained indoors from a diffuse reference target reveal the well known Rayleigh statistics for the signal amplitude and speckle "cells' which on the average have a diameter equal to the tranceiver aperture. The influence of atmospheric turbulence on transmitter beam size and signal fluctuations is studied over a 500 m path.
- Publication:
-
NASA STI/Recon Technical Report N
- Pub Date:
- January 1984
- Bibcode:
- 1984STIN...8424930C
- Keywords:
-
- Continuous Wave Lasers;
- Design Analysis;
- Image Processing;
- Laser Target Designators;
- Optical Heterodyning;
- Optical Radar;
- Atmospheric Turbulence;
- Beam Currents;
- Calibrating;
- Performance Tests;
- Phase Matching;
- Thermal Noise;
- Communications and Radar