Acta Photonica Sinica, Volume. 52, Issue 5, 0552210(2023)

Atmospheric Effects of Star Imaging(Ⅱ):Atmospheric Turbulence

Zhiwei TAO1,2,3, Congming DAI1,3、*, Pengfei WU1,3, Yichong REN4, Haiping MEI1,3, Jie TONG1,3,5, Chuankai LUO1,3, Chun QING1,3, Yunsong FENG2, Heli WEI1,3, and Ruizhong RAO1,3
Author Affiliations
  • 1Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Optics, Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, China
  • 2Infrared and Low Temperature Plasma Key Laboratory of Anhui Province, Electronic Countermeasure College, National University of Defense Technology, Hefei 230037, China
  • 3Advanced Laser Technology Anhui Laboratory, Hefei 230037, China
  • 4School of Physics, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230601, China
  • 5Science Island Branch, Graduate School of University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
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    The rapid development of aerospace technology, such as GPS satellite navigation system, represented by high precision and sensitivity, is gradually gaining wide attention from researchers and replacing traditional radio navigation systems, playing an important role in military defense, space exploration, engineering surveying, air-to-air combat and other fields. However, due to the limitations of traditional electromagnetic theory, satellite navigation technology has relatively weak anti-electronic deception and electromagnetic jamming capabilities. In order to enhance the autonomy and reliability of the navigation system, a passive and strong counter-jamming navigation method, which is named as starlight navigation, has been proposed. In the 1950 s, the advent of star sensors greatly improved the accuracy of starlight navigation. Star sensors are high-precision attitude-sensitive measuring instruments that measure the star vector component in the star sensor coordinate system by conducting the stellar observation, and determine the three-axis attitude of the carrier relative to the inertial coordinate system using known precise star positions. The high accuracy, strong counter-jamming ability, and independence from other systems of star sensor navigation technology have a wide range of applications and important military value on various airborne, shipborne, and vehicle-mounted platforms in near-earth space. However, as the development of observation platforms and the decrease in the observation height of star sensors in the atmosphere, a star sensor operating in the terrestrial space will inevitably be affected by sky background radiation, atmospheric turbulence, and atmospheric refraction during the observation. This three-part paper aims to extensively reveal these atmospheric effects on stellar observation. In Part II, we develop a starlight atmospheric propagation model to investigate the effects of atmospheric turbulence on star imaging. Based on the profile of atmospheric turbulence obtained by the ERA5 data of typical regions and optical turbulence prediction method, we employ von Karman spectrum of refractive index fluctuation and the so-called subharmoniccompensation-based fast-Fourier-transform algorithm to generate the corresponding random phase screens and calculate the spatial distribution, number, and strength of phase screens in accordance with the rule of equivalent Rytov-index interval phase screen. After that, we calculate the scintillation index of starlight for different moments and different observation conditions in typical regions by eliminating the apertureaveraging effect at the receiver. Further, we verify the reliability of the numerical calculation by comparing the theoretical counterpart of stellar scintillation. We investigate the scintillation effects and the jitter characteristics of starlight transmission in atmospheric turbulence and obtain the jitter displacements in the far field under typical observation height and zenith angle according to the far-field imaging theory. We show that the arrival angle and arrival angle fluctuation of stellar jitter are positively correlated with the scintillation index of starlight, and the effects of atmospheric turbulence on star imaging can be mitigated to a certain extent by increasing the observation altitude and reducing the observation zenith angle of the star sensor. This research provides a comprehensive analysis of atmospheric turbulence effects on star imaging and offers suggestions for improving stellar observation in terrestrial space. Moreover, these findings are of great significance for the practical application of star sensor navigation technology in various fields.

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    Zhiwei TAO, Congming DAI, Pengfei WU, Yichong REN, Haiping MEI, Jie TONG, Chuankai LUO, Chun QING, Yunsong FENG, Heli WEI, Ruizhong RAO. Atmospheric Effects of Star Imaging(Ⅱ):Atmospheric Turbulence[J]. Acta Photonica Sinica, 2023, 52(5): 0552210

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    Paper Information

    Category: Special Issue for Advanced Science and Technology of Astronomical Optics

    Received: Mar. 1, 2023

    Accepted: Apr. 19, 2023

    Published Online: Jul. 19, 2023

    The Author Email: DAI Congming (cmdai@aiofm.ac.cn)

    DOI:10.3788/gzxb20235205.0552210

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