LADAR Light Reflection Analysis for Target Surface Characterization

This Phase I STTR effort develops and tests spectropolarimetric surface characterization algorithms for LADAR based remote sensing. A systematic approach is used which first defines the operational scenarios for which the algorithms are to work. These scenarios are then used to define requirements for LADAR hardware and algorithms which serves to focus the algorithm development effort. A library of surface material Mueller matrix measurements is used as the basis for a fundamental surface characterization investigation that will establish the ultimate potential to discriminate between different materials/classes of materials. The library used consists of existing measurement data from government and industry sources plus measurements made during Phase I to fill high priority gaps in the data library. A preliminary design of improved instrumentation (which would be built in Phase II) for measuring full Mueller matrix BRDFs will be made in order to address weaknesses in previous measurement data. Finally, a suite of algorithms will be developed to address the high priority scenarios identified at the beginning of the effort, and these algorithms will be tested on synthetic LADAR images created to represent these scenarios. Testing will be performed on SDI’s existing LEAP ATR application.