Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Finkel, M. W..
Optical scanner instantaneously reads contiguous lines forming scene or target in object plane. Reading active or passive and scans, continuous or discrete. Scans essentially linear with scan angle and symmetric about axial ray. Nominal focal error, resulting from curvature of scan, well within Rayleigh limit. Scanner specifically designed to be fully compatible with general requirements of linear arrays.
A new airborne Linear Array Pushbroom Radiometer (LAPR-II) was built. LAPR-II will use linear arrays of silicon detectors to acquire four channels of digital image data for spectral bands within the visible and near infrared portions of the spectrum (0.4 - 1.0 micrometers). The data will be quantized to 10 bits, and spectral filters for each channel will be changeable in flight. The instrument will initially be flown aboard a NASA/Wallops' aircraft, and off nadir pointing of LAPR-II will be possible. Together, the instrument and its platform will provide a flexible readily available source of digital image data for scientific experiments. If LAPR-II is to serve as a precise scientific instrument, the instrument's characteristics must be quantitatively described and the data must be calibrated with respect to absolute radiometric units. The LAPR-II is described and the work required to characterize the instrument's spectral response, radiometric response, and spatial resolution and to calibrate the response from the many detectors per array is outlined.
Following a brief review of nonstationary processes, the paper deals with mixed stationary processes as they apply to the determination of the power density spectrum for monolithic detector arrays. A rather direct method is developed for realizing the noise power spectrum by transforming the corresponding autocorrelation function. Although the measurements presented pertain to a 96-element photodiode linear array, the method outlined should be applicable to any monolithic device. Theoretical and experimental results are provided.
Diffraction by nearly specular Guassian surfaces is discussed according to the Beckmann Treatment and Fourier optics. It is shown that the fundamental parameters beta, the RMS roughness and correlation T, the correlation distance can be determined by scattering measurements.
Integrating sphere theory with wall mounted specular sample in reflectance and transmittance measurements
Portable integrating sphere reflectometer, describing optical system, construction, etc
Goniometer for measuring angular distribution of IR forward and backward scattering of polycrystalline optical materials at discrete spectral intervals
Uniform local responsivity of detectors by scanning
Approximate method for determining absorption coefficients of potential application to optically thin materials where primary scattering predominates