Solar panel scale inversion with higher-order statistical moments of echo laser pulse waveform

Abstract

The space environment is becoming increasingly complicated; therefore, precise detection and identification of space targets are critical to preserving space security. Compared to optical and radar imaging, obtaining space target information using laser echo waveform is more efficient for detection. Based on the skew-normal distribution decomposition, the connection between sub-echoes and target scale following the decomposition of the space target pulse laser echo waveform is explored, and an inversion approach is suggested to identify the scale information of the solar panel utilizing the intersection of skewness and kurtosis contours in the coordinate system of the variables to be solved, based on the high-order moment characteristics of waveforms such as skewness and kurtosis. Using the proposed method, we realized the scale inversion of a 60-cm solar panel of a cube satellite inclined at 45 deg, with the turntable and the detection system placed 80 m apart. The results show that the skewness and kurtosis of the decomposed echo can represent the target size information, and the approach used here can successfully extract the solar panel scale information of a typical satellite, providing methods and data support for space target detection and classification.