Paper 13149-69
Paper 13149-69
Image blur due to aerosols and correlation with aerosol morphology and optical properties
22 August 2024 • 1:50 PM - 2:10 PM PDT
Abstract
Small angle scattering by relatively large atmospheric cloud/fog water droplets and ice crystals can cause significant contrast reduction and blurring of imagery. While this effect is quite well explained and verified in field experiments and sensor models, the extent to which aerosols, especially those of quite prevalent anthropogenic fine/ultra-fine/coarse mode play a role in image degradation remains to this date, a controversial topic. In this work, the contribution of aerosols to image blur will be revisited but with special focus on field data collected with a relatively large variety of ambient aerosol characterization and optical instrumentation. Ambient particulate/aerosol morphology and optical properties and trends will be correlated with collected multi-band imagery using instruments including nano-class condensation particle counters, a nephelometer to derive in real-time the composite aerosol phase functions, and a fog monitor to distinguish larger particulate (water droplet/ice crystal) contributions.
Presenter
Air Force Institute of Technology (United States)
Santasri Bose-Pillai received her PhD in Electrical Engineering with a focus in Optics in 2008 and her M.S. in Electrical Engineering in 2005, both from New Mexico State University. She received her B.S.E.E with honors from Jadavpur University, India in 2000. Currently she is a Research Assistant Professor at AFIT's Center for Directed Energy within the Engineering Physics department. Dr. Bose-Pillai's research interests include propagation and imaging through atmosphere, telescope pointing and tracking, generation of partially coherent sources that can be useful for directed energy applications and laser communications. She is a senior member of SPIE and Optica and a regular member of DEPS.