SYSTEM ENGINEERING APPROACH TO MITIGATE EFFECTS OF ATMOSPHERIC TURBULENCE FOR TERRESTRIAL HORIZONTAL PATH IMAGING SENSORS

Abstract

This dissertation shall demonstrate how the system engineering process enables development of a novel and feasible approach toward mitigating in real time the image degrading effects of optical turbulence in a horizontal atmospheric path when viewed using an electro-optical imaging system. This work concentrates on the early phases of the system engineering process. The critical output products are a detailed system concept model, a draft specification, and an associated feasibility analysis which verifies the approach is both physically possible and economically achievable. A new optical ray-trace analytical method is disclosed which enables both the development and validation of the system concept. Feasibility analyses show that the technology required is within reach of the current state-of-the-art, and also reveal the risks and technology gaps which may yet need to be resolved in future work.