A new and patented polishing tool called Orthogonal Velocity field Tool (OVT) was built and its material removal characteristics from Chemical Vapor Deposition Silicon Carbide (CVD SiC) mirror surfaces were investigated in this study. The velocity field of OVT is produced by rotating the bicycle type tool in the two orthogonal axes, and this concept is capable of producing a material removal foot print of pseudo Gaussian shapes. First for the OVT characterization, we derived a theoretical material removal model using distributions of pressure exerted onto the workpiece surface, relative speed between the tool and workpiece surface, and dwell time inside the tool- workpiece contact area. Second, using two flat CVD SiC mirrors that are 150 mm in diameter, we ran material removal experiments over machine run parameter ranging from 12.901 to 25.867 psi in pressure, from 0.086 m/sec to 0.147 m/sec tool in the relative speed, and 5 to 15 sec in dwell time. Material removal coefficients are obtained by using the in-house developed data analysis program. The resulting material removal coefficient varies from 3.35 to 9.46 um/psi hour m/sec with a mean value of 5.90 ± 1.26(standard deviation). We describe the technical details of the new OVT machine, the data analysis program, the experiments, and the results together with the implications to the future development of the machine.
The imaging spectrometer generally shows geometrical asymmetric distortions known as the keystone and smile that are different from the regular imaging optical system. The conventional method of measuring such distortions requires a precision movement control stage and specialized optical setup. Moreover, it is even harder to measure other characteristics such as the wave front error (WFE) simultaneously and to repeat the measurements since an accumulated vast number of statistical data is required to calculate the keystone and smile. To overcome these disadvantages, a new and simple method is proposed. The newly proposed method takes images separated in fields and wavelengths utilizing a simple tool called the field identifier (FI). Then, the keystone and the smile are calculated fast and repeatedly from a single measurement image while measuring the WFE with the Shack-Hartmann sensor with the minimum change of the measurement setup. With this method, hyperspectral imager is aligned and its geometrical distortions are measured.
We developed a new integrated ray tracing (IRT) technique to analyze the stray light effect in remotely sensed images. Images acquired with the Geostationary Ocean Color Imager show a radiance level discrepancy at the slot boundary, which is suspected to be a stray light effect. To determine its cause, we developed and adjusted a novel in-orbit stray light analysis method, which consists of three simulated phases (source, target, and instrument). Each phase simulation was performed in a way that used ray information generated from the Sun and reaching the instrument detector plane efficiently. This simulation scheme enabled the construction of the real environment from the remote sensing data, with a focus on realistic phenomena. In the results, even in a cloud-free environment, a background stray light pattern was identified at the bottom of each slot. Variations in the stray light effect and its pattern according to bright target movement were simulated, with a maximum stray light ratio of 8.5841% in band 2 images. To verify the proposed method and simulation results, we compared the results with the real acquired remotely sensed image. In addition, after correcting for abnormal phenomena in specific cases, we confirmed that the stray light ratio decreased from 2.38% to 1.02% in a band 6 case, and from 1.09% to 0.35% in a band 8 case. IRT-based stray light analysis enabled clear determination of the stray light path and candidates in in-orbit circumstances, and the correction process aided recovery of the radiometric discrepancy.
In recent years, high performance visible and IR cameras have been used widely for tactical airborne reconnaissance. The process improvement for efficient discrimination and analysis of complex target information from active battlefields requires for simultaneous multi-band measurement from airborne platforms at various altitudes. We report a new dual band airborne camera designed for simultaneous registration of both visible and IR imagery from mid-altitude ranges. The camera design uses a common front end optical telescope of around 0.3m in entrance aperture and several relay optical sub-systems capable of delivering both high spatial resolution visible and IR images to the detectors. The camera design is benefited from the use of several optical channels packaged in a compact space and the associated freedom to choose between wide (~3 degrees) and narrow (~1 degree) field of view. In order to investigate both imaging and radiometric performances of the camera, we generated an array of target scenes with optical properties such as reflection, refraction, scattering, transmission and emission. We then combined the target scenes and the camera optical system into the integrated ray tracing simulation environment utilizing Monte Carlo computation technique. Taking realistic atmospheric radiative transfer characteristics into account, both imaging and radiometric performances were then investigated. The simulation results demonstrate successfully that the camera design satisfies NIIRS 7 detection criterion. The camera concept, details of performance simulation computation, the resulting performances are discussed together with future development plan.
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