Reflective tomography reconstruction of satellite features-field results

We report on the first satellite feature reconstruction, to our knowledge, by use of range-resolved reflective tomography techniques from nonimaging laser radar data collected on an orbiting satellite. The reconstructed features were two retroreflectors mounted on a satellite. The data were collected with a coherent laser radar system located at the Maui Space Surveillance Site in Maui, Hawaii. We utilized a filtered backpropagation algorithm to reconstruct the images using intensity projections created from the raw data. Key components of the image reconstruction process included the calculation of tomographic angles, the alignment of the intensity projections to an appropriate center of rotation, and compensation for the lack of data for a full 360 degrees set of views.