Method and apparatus for wide field distortion-compensated imaging
First Claim
1. An optical system comprising:
- an optical array detector;
a field stop;
a lenslet array interposed between the field stop and the optical array detector;
means coupled to the optical array detector for mensurating geometric distortion, said means further including means for determining, from said mensurated geometric distortion, optical wavefront distortions across a breadth of field angles as opposed to a single mono-axial field angle.
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Abstract
An imaging system for measuring the field variance of distorted light waves collects a set of short exposure "distorted" images of an object, and applies a field variant data processing methodology in the digital domain, resulting in an image estimate which approaches the diffraction limited resolution of the underlying physical imaging system as if the distorting mechanism were not present. By explicitly quantifying and compensating for the field variance of the distorting media, arbitrarily wide fields can be imaged, well beyond the prior art limits imposed by isoplanatism. The preferred embodiment comprehensively eliminates the blurring effects of the atmosphere for ground based telescopes, removing a serious limitation that has plagued the use of telescopes since the time of Newton.
120 Citations
21 Claims
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1. An optical system comprising:
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an optical array detector; a field stop; a lenslet array interposed between the field stop and the optical array detector; means coupled to the optical array detector for mensurating geometric distortion, said means further including means for determining, from said mensurated geometric distortion, optical wavefront distortions across a breadth of field angles as opposed to a single mono-axial field angle.
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2. Apparatus including a focusing optic and a radiation sensor, the optic directing radiation from an object to the sensor, the sensor producing data signals corresponding thereto, the apparatus further including means responsive to data signals from the radiation sensor for characterizing geometrical distortion introduced by a medium between the object and the sensor even when, under isoplanatic conditions, the object is a zero contrast extended object.
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3. An imaging method comprising:
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receiving light from an object to be imaged, said light having been subject to optical wavefront distortions; exposing an optical detector with said received light, the optical detector producing a plurality (M) of time-spaced sets of detector data therefrom, each corresponding to a two-dimensional image of said object; processing said M time-spaced sets of detector data to discern geometric distortion of the received light; determining, from said discerned geometric distortion, optical wavefront distortions of the received light across a breadth of field angles, as opposed to from a single mono-axial field angle; and using the time-spaced sets of detector data and the determined optical wavefront distortions to produce a corrected set of image data. - View Dependent Claims (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A method of characterizing, in a plurality of dimensions, distortion introduced by a distorting medium interposed between an extended source and a detector, comprising:
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receiving radiation from the extended source, said radiation having been subject to distortion by said medium; exposing a detector with said received radiation, the detector producing a set of detector data therefrom corresponding to a two-dimensional representation of said source; processing said set of detector data to discern geometric distortion of the received radiation; determining, from said discerned geometric distortion, a three-dimensional turbulence structure of the distorting medium. - View Dependent Claims (19)
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- 20. In an imaging system including a focusing optic that directs radiation from an object to a sensor and provides a set of raw image data, an improvement including means coupled to the sensor for determining phase and geometric distortion in the raw image data across a breadth of field angles, as opposed to from a single mono-axial field angle.
Specification