Iterative physical optics model for electromagnetic scattering and Doppler analysis

An iterative physical optics（IPO） model is proposed to solve extra large scale electric electromagnetic（EM） scattering from randomly rough surfaces. In order to accelerate the convergence of the IPO model, the forward-backward methodology and its modification with underrelaxation iteration are developed to simulate the rough surface scattering; the local iteration methodology and the fast far field approximation（Fa FFA） in the matrix-vector product are proposed to reduce greatly the computational complexity. These techniques make Monte Carlo simulations possible. Thus, the average Doppler spectra of backscattered signals obtained from the simulations are compared for different incident angles and sea states. In particular, the simulations show a broadening of the Doppler spectra for a more complicated sea state at a low grazing angle（LGA）.

Processing for laser radar range images

Imaging laser radar can give intensity and range images,which provide integrated 3-dimensional (3D) information about objects.However, dropouts and range anomalies exacerbate range images, which makes their background cluttered and target blurred.For background suppression,a new algorithm that combines intensity image and its mean is presented.By using this algorithm to process actual laser radar range images, most background noises are suppressed.According to range anomalies characteristics,multitemplate selection order mean filtering algorithm is presented and used for actual ladar range images where the distance between two targets is 77 m. This algorithm obtains the clear range image in which the interval of two objects is 75 m.The result shows that the processing algorithm is correct and effective.

Application of phase retrieval algorithm in reflective tomography laser radar imaging

We apply phase retrieval method to align projection data for tomographic reconstruction in reflective tomography laser radar imaging. In our experiment, the target is placed on a spin table with an unknown, but fixed, axis. The oscillatory motion of the target in the incident direction of the laser pulse is added at each view to simulate the real satellites random motion. The experimental simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of this method to improve image reconstruction quality. Future research also includes the development of projection registration based on phase retrieval for targets with more complicated structure.

Image recognition of laser radar using linear SVM correlation filter

Through deducing the relationship between support vector machine （SVM） and correlation principle, the optimal hyperplane is proved as a correlation filter when the kernel function is the linear kernel. So a new correlation filter, named linear SVM correlation filter （LSCF）, is proposed. The filter has not only shift-invariance, but also SVM properties. The real images of laser radar are used as experiment data, and LSCF is used to solve the in-plane rotation invariance. The results show that the filter can recognize the different rotated objects, and the correlation output is stable. The filter is insensitive to the noise and gray change, and has good discrimination ability. In the same design way, LSCF is also suitable to solve other problems of correlation distortion.

Correlation recognition for range image of laser radar

The target recognition of laser radar becomes hot research in recent years, because laser radar can produce high space resolution and collect rich target information, such as range image, intensity image and Doppler image. In the vertical detection of laser radar, the problem of in-plane target rotation invariance is firstly solved. In the paper, a new support vector machine （SVM） correlation filter is presented, which simultaneously has the attractive attributes of SVM and common correlation filter. Exploiting the idea of margin of separation maximization, the design criterion is produced. The filter is synthetic by the multiple training images which are generated by rotating one image. The real range images of laser radar are used to finish the correlation experiments. The results show that the filter is not sensitive to the noise, the correlation peak is changed slightly for the different testing images, and the precision of location is high. This design way can be used in other recognition fields.

Improvement of signal-to-noise ratio in chaotic laser radar based on algorithm implementation

Chaotic laser radar based on correlation detection is a high-resolution measurement tool for remotely mon- itoring targets or objects. However, its effective range is often limited by the side-lobe noise of correlation trace, which is always increased by the randomness of the chaotic signal itself and other transmission channel noises or interferences. The experimental result indicates that the wavelet denoising method can recover the real chaotic lidar signal in strong period noise disturbance, and a signal-to-noise ratio of about 8 dB is increased. Moreover, the correlation average discrete-component elimination algorithm significantly suppresses the side-lobe noise of the correlation trace when 20 dB of chaotic noise is embedded into the chaotic probe signal. Both methods have advantages and disadvantages.

Eye-safe,single-frequency pulsed all-fiber laser for Doppler wind lidar

A single-frequency pulsed erbium-doped fiber （EDF） laser with master-oscillator power-amplifier configuration at 1 533 nm is developed. A short-cavity, erbium-doped phosphate glass fiber laser is utilized as a seeder laser with a linewidth of 5 kHz and power of 40 mW. The seeder laser is modulated to be a pulse laser with a repetition rate of 10 kHz and pulse duration of 500 ns. The amplifier consists of two pre-amplifiers and one main amplifier. The detailed characteristics of the spectrum and linewidth of the amplifiers are presented. A pulse energy of 116 μJ and a linewidth of 1.1 MHz are obtained. This laser can be a candidate transmitter for an all-fiber Doppler wind lidar in the boundary layer.

Down-looking synthetic aperture imaging ladar demonstrator and its experiments over 1.2 km outdoor

We present a down-looking synthetic aperture imaging ladar demonstrator and its experiments over 1.2 km in the field. The achieved imaging resolution is in agreement with the theoretical design, and the resulting two-dimensional image is satisfied. The capability to eliminate the influence from atmospheric turbulence is fully proven by the experiments.

Frequency-stabilized laser system at 1572 nm for space-borne CO2 detection LIDAR

A frequency-stabilized laser system at 1572 nm for space-borne carbon dioxide （CO2） detection LIDAR to realize the precise measurement of the global atmospheric CO2 concentration is presented in this Letter. A distributed- feedback laser diode serves as the master laser （ML） and is wavelength locked to the CO2 line center at 1572.0179 nm using the external frequency modulation technique. The root mean square frequency drift is sup- pressed to about 50 kHz at an average time of 0.1 s over 8 h. Based on optical phase-locked loops, an online seeder and an offiine seeder are offset locked to the reference laser at 1572.024 and 1572.081 nm, respectively, retaining virtually the same frequency stability as the ML.

Denoising lidar signal by combining wavelet improved threshold with wavelet domain spatial filtering

Lidar is an effective tool for remotely monitoring target or object, but the lidar signal is often affected by various noises or interferences. Therefore, detecting the weak signals buried in noises is a fundamental and important problem in the lidar systems. In this paper, an effective noise reduction method combining wavelet improved threshold with wavelet domain spatial filtration is presented to denoise pulse lidar signal and is investigated by detecting the simulating pulse lidar signals in noise. The simulation results show that this method can effectively identify the edge of signal and detect the weak lidar signal buried in noises.

Measurements for profiles of aerosol extinction coefficient,backscatter coefficient,and lidar ratio over Wuhan in China with Raman/Mie lidar

The profiles of aerosol extinction,backscatter coefficient,and lidar ratio in the lower troposphere over Wuhan are measured by a multi-channel Raman/Mie lidar.Using the lidar ratio retrieved by Raman scattering principle,the profiles of aerosol extinction and backscatter coefficients are also retrieved by Mie scattering signals,without a prior assumption about their relation in the traditional pure Mie signals data analyses.The observations by both Raman and Mie are in good agreement with each other.The high coherence shows that the system is reliable,and the Mie and Raman channels are in good adjustment and have the same field of view.

Comparison of simultaneous signals obtained from a dual-field-of-view lidar and its application to noise reduction based on empirical mode decomposition

Although the empirical mode decomposition （EMD） method is an effective tool for noise reduction in lidar signals, evaluating the effectiveness of the denoising method is difficult. A dual-field-of-view lidar for observing atmospheric aerosols is described. The backscattering signals obtained from two channels have different signal-to-noise ratios （SNRs）. The performance of noise reduction can be investigated by comparing the high SNR signal and the denoised low SNR signal without a simulation experiment. With this approach, the signal and noise are extracted to one intrinsic mode function （IMF） by the EMD- based denoising; thus, the threshold method is applied to the IMFs. Experimental results show that the improved threshold method can effectively perform noise reduction while preserving useful sudden-change information.

Analysis of saturation signal correction of the troposphere lidar

Usually, lidar detection systems are optimized for the measurement of the low intensity signal using the photon counting technique, but this approach results in the nonlinear signal response for the higher intensity signal. The problem is successfully solved by the combination of analog-to-digital （AD） and photon- counting （PC） detection. The optimized processing procedure of the signal combination of AD and PC is described, and the corrected result is analyzed and compared with the results by the dealt-time correction method. In this way, the accuracy of wind and aerosol measurement in the nonlinear range is improved. In addition, the signal-to-noise ratios （SNRs） of the two detection methods of AD and PC are compared in the overall dynamic range of signal for the performance analysis.

Three-dimensional imaging interferometric synthetic aperture ladar

A monostatic strip-map mode interferometric synthetic aperture ladar （SAL） is reported. Using a chirped laser of about 5 mW at 1550 nm wavelength as the illumination source and two cross-track receiving apertures with a baseline of 1.6 mm, the ladar can generate both well-focused two-dimensional SAL images without adopting phase error removing techniques and three-dimensional images by interferometric SAL techniques. Detailed results are illustrated for retro-reflective or diffusive targets at a distance of 2.4 m.

Classifying land cover based on calibrated full-waveform airborne light detection and ranging data

The capability of the parameters derived from waveform data in discriminating objects is assessed and the effect of the relative calibration of full-waveform data in discriminating land-cover classes is evaluated. Firstly, a non-linear least-squares method with the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm is used to fit the return waveforms by a Gaussian function. Gaussian amplitude, standard deviation, and energy are extracted. Secondly, a relative calibration method using the range between the sensor and the target based on a radar equation is applied to calibrate amplitude and energy. The change in transmit pulse energy is also considered in this process. A support vector machine classifier is used to distinguish the study area into non-vegetated area （including roads, buildings, and vacant lots）, grassland, needle-leaf forests, and broad- leaf forests. The overall classification accuracy ranges from 79.33% to 87.6%, with the combination of the two groups of the three studied parameters. Calibrated data classification accuracy is improved from 1.20% to 6.44%, thus resulting in better forest type discrimination. The result demonstrates that the parameters extracted from the waveforms can be applied effectively in identifying objects and that relative calibrated data can improve overall classification accuracy.

Development of an all-fiber heterodyne lidar for range and velocity measurements

A 1550-nm all-fiber monostatic lidar system based on linear chirp amplitude modulation and heterodyne detection for the measurements of range and velocity is presented. The signal processing method is given, after which the relationship between the peak frequency values in the final signal spectrum, the target＇s range, and the line-of-sight velocity is obtained in the presence of the fiber end-face-reflected signal plaguing many monostatic lidar systems. The range of an electric fan as well as the line-of-sight fan speed of different levels is tested. This proposed system has a potential application for the space-borne landing system.

Development of all-solid coherent Doppler wind lidar

A 1064-nm pulsed coherent Doppler lidar （CDL） prototype is developed to measure short range wind speed in the lower altitude troposphere layer. The CDL system adopts an injection seeded Nd：YAG laser with the pulse duration of 80 ns, single pulse energy of 0.5 m J, and pulse repetition rate of 200 Hz. Speed calibration experiments are implemented to obtain a speed accuracy of 0.3 m/s using a hard target. Data analysis results show that the CDL system can obtain a line-of-sight wind velocity at a range of 30 to 500 m with the range resolution of 40 m and 38 pulses accumulation.

Measurements of aerosol distribution by an elastic-backscatter lidar in summer 2008 in Beijing

Elastic lidar observations of profiles of the aerosol extinction, backscattering coefficients, and the lidar ratio have been performed in Beijing. The elastic lidar transmitts wavelengths of 532 and 355 nm. The measurement altitude can reach up to 6 km. The similarity of the extinction and baekscattering profiles suggests a close relation between the mean transmission and reflection properties. The lidar ratio on July 22, 2008 varied from 10 to 30 sr with the mean value of 20 sr. The profiles of the aerosol properties indicate the cirrus at 6 km altitude and a well-mixed boundary layer from July 22 to 24, 2008. The detected boundary layer also agrees well with the high and stable ozone concentration obtained from the differential optical absorption spectroscopy （DOAS） system.

A new approach to measure the ocean temperature using Brillouin lidar

An approach of lidar measurements of ocean temperature through measuring the spectral linewidth of the backscattered Brillouin lines is presented. An empirical equation for the temperature as a function of Brillouin linewidth and salinity is derived. Theoretical results are in good agreement with the experimental data. The equation also reveals the dependence of the temperature on the salinity and Brillouin linewidth. It is shown that the uncertainty of the salinity has very little impact on the temperature measurement. The uncertainty of this temperature measurement methodology is approximately 0.02 ℃.

High-efficiency 1598.5-nm third Stokes Raman laser based on barium nitrate crystal

A high-efficiency eye-safe Raman laser was demonstrated by use of the third Stokes radiation in a Ba（NO3）2 crystal pumped by a 1064-nm Nd：YAG laser. The output wavelength of the Raman laser was 1598.5 nm with a full-width at half-maximum （FWHM） of 1.5 nm. With an incident pump energy of 140 mJ, a maximum of 18-mJ Raman output energy was generated at a repetition rate of 30 Hz, corresponding to an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 12.9%. The Raman pulse duration was shortened to 2.9 ns compared with that of the pump pulse of 19.3 ns. The eye-safe solid-state Raman laser is expected to have wide applications in range-finding, telemetry, laser radar, and other aspects.