Plenary talk unconventional imaging for remote sensing applications

Summary form only given. Images can be formed in many nontraditional ways. For remote sensing applications through atmospheric turbulence, we have developed both passive and active (laser) imaging approaches. (1) For astronomy or space-object imaging, phase retrieval algorithms can reconstruct a fine-resolution diffraction-limited image from a number of short-exposure blurred images. (2) For long horizontal-path imaging, for which the atmospheric blur is highly space-variant, laser illumination and digital holography allow one to sense the optical fields and reconstruct an image without any image-forming optics. Image sharpening algorithms can then estimate the turbulence functions in multiple planes and digitally correct the space-variant blur.