Optical imaging through clouds and fog

Author

Jaruwatanadilok, Sermsak ; Ishimaru, Akira ; Kuga, Yasuo

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

Volume

41

Issue

8

fYear

2003

Firstpage

1834

Lastpage

1843

Abstract

Imaging and detection of objects at optical wavelengths offers better resolution than at microwave or millimeter wavelengths. However, the imaging is severely affected by scattering from fog and clouds. This paper presents a study of optical imaging through clouds by using the point-source vector radiative transfer theory. The point-spread function including complete polarization characteristics is presented with numerical examples at 1 μm wavelength showing the effects of aperture size and optical depth on the shower curtain effects.

Keywords

atmospheric optics; clouds; fog; geophysical techniques; remote sensing; terrain mapping; 1 micron; atmosphere; cloud; fog; geophysical measurement technique; infrared imaging; land surface; optical depth; optical imaging; optics; point-source vector radiative transfer theory; point-spread function; polarization; remote sensing cloud; shower curtain effects; terrain mapping; troposphere; Apertures; Clouds; Equations; Image quality; Light scattering; Microwave imaging; Object detection; Optical imaging; Optical polarization; Optical scattering;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Geoscience and Remote Sensing, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0196-2892

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TGRS.2003.813845

Filename

1221791