SPARCE APERTURE ADAPTIVE OPTICS FOR A DYNAMIC ENVIRONMENT

Development of air-to-air and air-to-ground imaging LADAR systems with high resolution is a difficult problem, because transmit and receive signals are distorted by atmospheric turbulence along the beam path. The distortion has high-frequency spatial and temporal components due to the movement of the platform. To dynamically correct the turbulence viewed from a tactical platform, the adaptive optic system needs to have a fast close-loop response. The proposed Phase II approach combines an adaptive optics piston-tip-tilt beacon optimizing technique with a post-processing technique of applying an imaging sharpening algorithm to captured data. The hybrid approach offers a robust LADAR solution for target identification, aim point selection, target tracking, aim point maintenance and damage assessment from airborne platforms that experience highly-dynamic atmospheric turbulence. In Phase II, Boulder Nonlinear Systems (BNS) and Lockheed Martin Coherent Technologies (LMCT) will demonstrate the adaptive optics (AO) capability of the hybrid approach by integrating the technology into an imaging LADAR breadboard system and demonstrating the system in an aero-optic environment.