Detection of polarimetric signatures for enhanced target detection and recognition for homeland security applications

Author

Sumrain, Shadi ; Giakos, George C.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Akron Univ., OH, USA

fYear

2005

fDate

29-30 March 2005

Firstpage

6

Lastpage

10

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore backscattered polarimetric signatures from targets in a variety of experimental scenarios utilizing high-sensitivity detection techniques and Mueller matrix-rotating retarder polarimetric techniques. As a result different targets have been characterized and analyzed by means of their polarization signatures and optical cross section at wavelengths of 785 nm, 830 nm, and 980 nm. The experimental results of this study indicate that a degree of linear polarization (DOLP) signal produces significant enhancement over a backscattered light intensity signal. In addition, the optical cross section of backscattered light from targets can be significantly improved by using polarimetric principles.

Keywords

backscatter; light polarisation; light scattering; matrix algebra; object detection; object recognition; optical images; polarimetry; 785 nm; 830 nm; 980 nm; Mueller matrix; backscattered light intensity signal; backscattered polarimetric signatures; degree of linear polarization signal; enhanced target detection; enhanced target recognition; homeland security applications; optical cross section; optical imaging; polarimetric signature detection; polarization signatures; rotating retarder; Light scattering; Mie scattering; Object detection; Optical imaging; Optical polarization; Optical scattering; Rayleigh scattering; Scattering parameters; Target recognition; Terrorism;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Measurement Systems for Homeland Security, Contraband Detection and Personal Safety Workshop, 2005. (IMS 2005) Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Workshop on

Print_ISBN

0-7803-9121-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MSHS.2005.1502545

Filename

1502545