Finding the range to a distant object near the sea surface

Marianne A. C. Degache; Stephen Hammel

doi:10.1117/12.741056

25 September 2007 Finding the range to a distant object near the sea surface

Proceedings Volume 6708, Atmospheric Optics: Models, Measurements, and Target-in-the-Loop Propagation; 67080U (2007) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.741056
Event: Optical Engineering + Applications, 2007, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Within the marine atmospheric surface layer it is possible for a single camera to deduce passively the range to a point target. Although this range determination would appear impossible at first glance, such a measurement exploits the common occurrence of sub-refractive propagation conditions in the marine environment. A calculation of the range to an object utilizes a geometric optics determination of slight angular differences between two different ray trajectories to the object. This is most commonly done with the assumption of Euclidean or 'free-space' conditions. In this paper we utilize the phenomenon of inferior mirages to provide two different ray-paths to an imaging sensor. The primary assumption is that the environment containing the path from camera (or eye) to target is homogeneous (but not isotropic).

Citation Download Citation

Marianne A. C. Degache and Stephen Hammel "Finding the range to a distant object near the sea surface", Proc. SPIE 6708, Atmospheric Optics: Models, Measurements, and Target-in-the-Loop Propagation, 67080U (25 September 2007); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.741056

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