Abstract

The shape of the spectral transmittance of an acoustooptic tunable filter is invariant to a translation of the filter peak if the spectral transmittance is expressed as a function of wave number. A computer code based upon this invariance rapidly models the performance of an acoustooptic tunable filter operating as an integral part of a satellite-based earth-looking IR telescope. The telescope system detects moving IR-emitting sources against the background radiance of the earth. As an example, the problem of a source at 8 km with a water background is treated. It is shown that the effect of decreasing the filter interaction length is to increase the SNR, though an accompanying increase in background photons may saturate the detection process. The influence of atmospheric water vapor absorption is prominent in the results of analysis.

© 1979 Optical Society of America

Least-mean-square spatial filter for IR sensors

E. H. Takken, D. Friedman, A. F. Milton, and R. Nitzberg
Appl. Opt. 18(24) 4210-4222 (1979)

Temporal response of high-resolution acoustooptic tunable filters

Milton Gottlieb and Zoltan Kun
Appl. Opt. 22(14) 2104-2108 (1983)

Effects of the earth’s atmosphere on a spaceborne IR Doppler wind-sensing system

Madison J. Post
Appl. Opt. 18(15) 2645-2653 (1979)

Calibration of long wavelength Exotech model 20C spectroradiometer

R. Kumar, B. Robinson, and L. Silva
Appl. Opt. 18(13) 2334-2341 (1979)

Acoustooptic spectrum analysis: a high performance hybrid technique

T. R. Bader
Appl. Opt. 18(10) 1668-1672 (1979)