Optical detection of rapidly moving objects in space.

We compare the sensitivity of photon-counting and charged-coupled-device (CCD) imagers for rapidly moving objects. Our test case involves the detection of small objects in space, seen against a diffuse zodiacal light background, as observed from a space platform. We contrast photon-counting detectors, with excellent time resolution and negligible readout noise, against CCDs with a significantly larger quantum efficiency. For fast moving objects and small fields of view, the photon-counting detectors are able to detect significantly smaller targets, with the added benefit of providing angle-angle-time metric information in addition to high-time-resolution light curves. For larger fields of view and slower moving objects, the CCDs are more sensitive. These results may motivate the further development of microchannel-plate photon-counting systems and amplified CCDs for detecting and tracking space objects.

[1]  Sharon R. Jelinsky,et al.  Performance results of the GALEX cross delay line detectors , 2003, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[2]  Timothy J. Norton,et al.  MIC photon counting detector , 1991, Electronic Imaging.

[3]  Ivan Viola,et al.  GPU-based frequency domain volume rendering , 2004, SCCG '04.

[4]  William C. Priedhorsky,et al.  Detecting small debris using a ground-based photon counting detector , 1993, Defense, Security, and Sensing.

[5]  Ray Bell,et al.  Subelectron read noise at MHz pixel rates , 2001, IS&T/SPIE Electronic Imaging.

[6]  Thomas Malzbender,et al.  Fourier volume rendering , 1993, TOGS.

[7]  Stuart Bowyer,et al.  The 1997 reference of diffuse night sky brightness , 1998 .

[8]  Jayant Sharma,et al.  The Space-Based Visible Program , 2000 .

[9]  Hossam A. ElGindy,et al.  High-speed Parameterisable Hough Transform Using Reconfigurable Hardware , 2001, VIP.

[10]  Dominique Lavenier,et al.  Advanced processing for high-bandwidth sensor systems , 2000, SPIE Optics + Photonics.

[11]  J. Gethyn Timothy.  Recent advances with the MAMA detector systems , 1994, Optics & Photonics.

[12]  J. Hynecek,et al.  Excess noise and other important characteristics of low light level imaging using charge multiplying CCDs , 2003 .

[13]  William C. Priedhorsky,et al.  Crossed-delay line detector for ground- and space-based applications , 1993, Optics & Photonics.

[14]  John V. Vallerga,et al.  Future of imaging photon counting detectors for ground-based astronomy , 2003, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[15]  B. Hadwen,et al.  The noise performance of electron multiplying charge-coupled devices , 2003 .

[16]  S. Bowyer,et al.  Wedge and Strip Image Readout Systems for Photon Counting Detectors in Space Astronomy , 1986, Topical Meeting on Quantum-Limited Imaging and Image Processing.