DESIGN OF AN ADVANCED OPTICAL PHASED ARRAY SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM

THE PURPOSE OF THIS PROGRAM WILL BE TO DESIGN AN ADVANCED OPTICAL PHASED ARRAY SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM, BASED ON DEMONSTRATED OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY, CAPABLE OF SATISFYING A RAYLEIGH TWO POINT RESOLUTION CRITERION OF 0.25 METER AT A DISTANCE OF 5,000 KM FOR VISIBLE LIGHT ILLUMINATION (APPROX \ 0.5 MICOMETER). CONVENTIONAL SINGLE APERTURE DESIGNS WOULD REQUIRE A TELESCOPE APERTURE 12 METERS IN DIAMETER. A COMPACT PHASED ARRAY OF DEMONSTRATED HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPES, 2.4 METERS IN DIAMETER, WOULD REQUIRE 24 TELESCOPES, BUT WOULD BE UNNECESSARILY EXPENSIVE. IN THIS PROPOSAL A SPARSE/CODED APERTURING CONCEPT USING ONLY SIX HUBBLE SIZED PRIMARIES WILL BE DESIGNED. THE IMAGE PROCESSING ALGORITHM FOR REMOVING THE EFFECTS OF RESIDUAL CLASSICAL ABERRATIONS SUCH AS PISTON, FOCUS, SPHERICAL ABERRATION, AS WELL AS UNCONTROLLED HIGH FREQUENCY JITTER, USING A STAR CALIBRATION OR REAL TIME IMAGE SHARPENING ALGORITHM WILL BE EVALUATED. COMPENSATORY MISALIGNMENT AND MISFOCUS, DESIGNED TO AID THE FILTER FUNCTION CORRECTION OF HIGHER ORDER ABERRATION, WHILE MINIMIZING NOISE GAIN (NG) WILL BE INVESTIGATED.