Space Object and Background Polarization Models and Detectability Analysis

Abstract

During the daytime, the commonly used optical intensity imaging techniques for spacecraft detection usually lead to poor detection due to strong background noise. Since some materials with low reflectivity in the visible band have higher reflectivity in the near-infrared band and less sky background noise, this paper carries out a study of near-infrared polarization detection techniques. In this paper, firstly, the parameters in the pBRDF model of common materials are inverted and found to be improved compared with the literature, and secondly, a complex spherical projection is proposed to represent the polarization degree and polarization angle information of the sky background, and this projection has less aberration than the direct projection. Finally, from the above, the polarization detection contrast range and the original intensity contrast range are calculated, and it is found that the maximum of the former is higher than the latter in some angles.