Optical characteristics of the Retroreflector in Space (RIS) on the ADEOS satellite

Kenichi Ozawa; Nobuhiko Koga; Nobuo Sugimoto; Tetsuo Aoki; Toshikasu Itabe; Hiroo Kunimori; Atsushi Minato; Yasuhiro Kubota; Yasunori Saito; Akio Nomura

doi:10.1117/12.295657

22 December 1997 Optical characteristics of the Retroreflector in Space (RIS) on the ADEOS satellite

Kenichi Ozawa, Nobuhiko Koga, Nobuo Sugimoto, Tetsuo Aoki, Toshikasu Itabe, Hiroo Kunimori, Atsushi Minato, Yasuhiro Kubota, Yasunori Saito, Akio Nomura

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 3218, Laser Radar Ranging and Atmospheric Lidar Techniques; (1997) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.295657
Event: Aerospace Remote Sensing '97, 1997, London, United Kingdom

Abstract

This paper reports the optical characteristics of the Retroreflector in Space (RIS) on the advanced earth observing satellite (ADEOS) in orbit. The RIS is a 0.5 m diameter single-element hollow cube-corner retroreflector with a unique design which uses a curved mirror to correct the velocity aberration caused by the satellite movement. We used a Nd:YAG laser to test the efficiency of the reflection at 532 nm. The ADEOS was actively tracked with a 1.5 m diameter tracking telescope using the image of the RIS lit by the Nd:YAG laser. We measured the intensity of return light with an image-intensified CCD camera on the guiding telescope with a diameter of 20 cm. The intensity of the return was quantified by comparing it with images of stars. We compared the result with the theoretical reflectance of the RIS, and confirmed that the reflectance of the RIS agreed with the designed value. The return from the RIS was comparable to a stellar magnitude of 2 to 3, depending on the elevation angle when lit by a 0.3 W laser with a beam divergence of 0.5 mrad.

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Kenichi Ozawa, Nobuhiko Koga, Nobuo Sugimoto, Tetsuo Aoki, Toshikasu Itabe, Hiroo Kunimori, Atsushi Minato, Yasuhiro Kubota, Yasunori Saito, and Akio Nomura "Optical characteristics of the Retroreflector in Space (RIS) on the ADEOS satellite", Proc. SPIE 3218, Laser Radar Ranging and Atmospheric Lidar Techniques, (22 December 1997); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.295657

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KEYWORDS

Retroreflectors

Satellites

Nd:YAG lasers

Reflectivity

Space telescopes

Telescopes

CCD cameras

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