Utilizing highly scattered light for intelligence through aerosols
| DWPI Title: Method for determining presence of object in moderately scattering aerosol with moving scatterers and transport optical depth between specific range, involves determining expected background signal when object is absent in aerosol |
| Abstract: A method for modeling light transport through a scattering medium prior to being incident on a detector and a corresponding system is disclosed. The method determines the effects of scattering and absorption caused by particles as a function of the density, size, and refractive index of the particles, as well as the wavelength of the light source. Based on the determined scattering and absorption coefficients, the signal incident on the detector may be calculated. The calculation may also be inverted such that based upon the detected signal, an object may be detected, and its location in the scattering medium may be estimated. |
| Use: Method for determining a presence of an object in a moderately scattering aerosol with moving scatterers and a transport optical depth between specific range. Uses include but are not limited to security, transportation, aviation, remote sensing, surveillance and astronomy. |
| Advantage: The free-space projection of the pixel positions into space was tested using images of a resolution target at multiple positions, and the feature size error was found to be less than 5%. The image contrast is greatly improved when the expected background signal is subtracted, thus improving the results of both the detection and the localization processes. |
| Novelty: The method (1700) involves determining (1710) macroscopic scattering coefficient of the moderately scattering aerosol. A macroscopic absorption coefficient of the moderately scattering aerosol is determined (1720). A macroscopic averaged anisotropy of the moderately scattering aerosol is determined (1730). A light source emitting a known power spectral density is provided. A detector is provided. An image of the light source with the detector is taken (1740). An expected background signal is determined (1750) when the object is absent using a moderately scattering light transport model. The expected background signal is subtracted (1760) from the image to create a difference image. The presence of the object is determined (1770) based upon the difference image. |
| Filed: 3/23/2022 |
| Application Number: US17702347A |
| Tech ID: SD 14806.1 |
| This invention was made with Government support under Contract No. DE-NA0003525 awarded by the United States Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration. The Government has certain rights in the invention. |
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