Inverse synthetic aperture ladar: a high-fidelity modeling and simulation tool

Abstract

A wave-optics model is developed which allows simulation of an Inverse Synthetic Aperture LADAR (ISAL) imaging system. This end-to-end tool models the complex interactions of Linear Frequency Modulated (LFM) chirped pulses, object/beam interactions including object articulation, speckle phenomenology, heterodyne detection with noise, atmospheric turbulence, and laser-guide star adaptive optics. Detected signal outputs are simulated and processed to explore system design trades and to test and compare image processing algorithms. Model verification results will be presented as well as reconstructed images.