Finding the range to a distant object near the sea surface
conference paper
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).
TNO Identifier
188608
Publisher
SPIE
Article nr.
67080U
Source title
Atmospheric Optics: Models, Measurements, and Target-in-the-Loop Propagation, 27 September 2007, San Diego, CA, USA
Editor(s)
Hammel, S.M.
Eijk,A.M.J. van
Valley, T.
Vorontsov, M.A.
Eijk,A.M.J. van
Valley, T.
Vorontsov, M.A.
Place of publication
Bellingham, WA