Compressive ladar detector noise performance

In scanning LADAR (SL) systems, a laser illuminates a small scene region and the receiver optics limits the field of view to restrict the amount of background light entering the aperture. As presented in earlier work [1], a Compressive LADAR (CL) illuminates a much larger region, all of which is also contained in the receiver field of view. If the CL is operated during daytime, this wider field of view can admit substantial background radiation, which degrades SNR. Several other noise sources can also affect pulse detection in the compressive measurements. In this paper, we present a detailed detector model and characterize CL performance for various signal level and SNR conditions.