Synthetic aperture ladar concept for infrastructure monitoring

Simon Turbide; Linda Marchese; Marc Terroux; Alain Bergeron

doi:10.1117/12.2067420

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13 October 2014 Synthetic aperture ladar concept for infrastructure monitoring

Simon Turbide, Linda Marchese, Marc Terroux, Alain Bergeron

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Proceedings Volume 9250, Electro-Optical Remote Sensing, Photonic Technologies, and Applications VIII; and Military Applications in Hyperspectral Imaging and High Spatial Resolution Sensing II; 92500B (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2067420
Event: SPIE Security + Defence, 2014, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Abstract

Long range surveillance of infrastructure is a critical need in numerous security applications, both civilian and military. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) continues to provide high resolution radar images in all weather conditions from remote distances. As well, Interferometric SAR (InSAR) and Differential Interferometric SAR (D-InSAR) have become powerful tools adding high resolution elevation and change detection measurements. State of the art SAR systems based on dual-use satellites are capable of providing ground resolutions of one meter; while their airborne counterparts obtain resolutions of 10 cm. D-InSAR products based on these systems could produce cm-scale vertical resolution image products. Deformation monitoring of railways, roads, buildings, cellular antennas, power structures (i.e., power lines, wind turbines, dams, or nuclear plants) would benefit from improved resolution, both in the ground plane and vertical direction. The ultimate limitation to the achievable resolution of any imaging system is its wavelength. State-of-the art SAR systems are approaching this limit. The natural extension to improve resolution is to thus decrease the wavelength, i.e. design a synthetic aperture system in a different wavelength regime. One such system offering the potential for vastly improved resolution is Synthetic Aperture Ladar (SAL). This system operates at infrared wavelengths, ten thousand times smaller than radar wavelengths. This paper presents a laboratory demonstration of a scaled-down infrastructure deformation monitoring with an Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Ladar (IFSAL) system operating at 1.5 μm. Results show sub-millimeter precision on the deformation applied to the target.

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Simon Turbide, Linda Marchese, Marc Terroux, and Alain Bergeron "Synthetic aperture ladar concept for infrastructure monitoring", Proc. SPIE 9250, Electro-Optical Remote Sensing, Photonic Technologies, and Applications VIII; and Military Applications in Hyperspectral Imaging and High Spatial Resolution Sensing II, 92500B (13 October 2014); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2067420

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