Abstract

Experimentally verified signal amplitude distributions from a coherent CO₂ laser radar have been used to derive radar performance for atmospheric remote sensing and hard target detection. Different target types include man-made diffuse, semirough, and glint targets as well as terrain backgrounds. The results, given as accuracy and probability of detection, respectively, show the importance of including beam gas concentration wandering especially for glint targets. It is shown how Doppler sensing and range gating improve target detection against terrain background.

© 1986 Optical Society of America

Measured signal amplitude distributions for a coherent FM-cw CO₂ laser radar

Dietmar Letalick, Ingmar Renhorn, and Ove Steinvall
Appl. Opt. 25(21) 3927-3938 (1986)

Imaging Q-switched CO₂ laser radar with heterodyne detection: design and evaluation

Henrik Ahlberg, Stefan Lundqvist, Dietmar Letalick, Ingmar Renhorn, and Ove Steinvall
Appl. Opt. 25(17) 2891-2898 (1986)

Turbulence effects on coherent laser radar target statistics

Jeffrey H. Shapiro and Sun T. Lau
Appl. Opt. 21(13) 2395-2398 (1982)

Imaging and target detection with a heterodyne-reception optical radar

J. H. Shapiro, B. A. Capron, and R. C. Harney
Appl. Opt. 20(19) 3292-3313 (1981)

Coherent laser radar performance for general atmospheric refractive turbulence

Rod G. Frehlich and Michael J. Kavaya
Appl. Opt. 30(36) 5325-5352 (1991)