Abstract: Apparatus for improving the resolution and/or field of view of an optical system without degrading the signal-to-noise ratio. An optical image of the object (1) in an image plane (8) is divided into n subimages, where n is any positive integer. Each of the n subimages is separately refocused (by 10, 20, 30) and detected (by 11, 21, 31). The optical system can be a staring or a scanning system, and can operate at any wavelength. When the number of subimages is two, an image bisector (7) is used. The bisector (7) comprises first and second highly reflective planar surfaces (12, 22). A knife edge (2), formed by the intersection of the reflective surfaces (12, 22), lies in the image plane (8). In the more general case, n-1 reflective surfaces are used, each having a knife edge lying in the image plane (8).

Abstract: a ratating sensor responsive to infrared or electro-optic radiation has a nearly hemispherical field of view. The sensor comprises a rotating platform (3) supporting a planar multidetector focal plane array (1). The array (1) has three or four sides. Two of the sides are straight lines. One or two sides are portions of conic sections. Individual detectors (2) within the array (1) can be continuous or discrete, and are organized into rows generally following the shape of the conic section(s). In either embodiment, time delay integration is performed row by row within the array (1) so as to equalize the sensitivity and resolution for each portion of the viewed scene. Several arrays (1) can be mounted within the carrier vehicle (8), mounted at different field angles. In this embodiment, the shape of the arrays (1) vary from a sector of a circle to rectangular.

Abstract: An optical projection system, e.g., an imaging infrared system, is compensated for errors caused by scan-to-scan jitter, framing jitter, vibrational effects, and scan nonlinearities. One or two closed control loops compensate for errors associated with mirrors (32, 52) of the optical projection system. In the scan control loop, a set of scan reference marks (75) in a reference plane (7) is superimposed onto a scan position detector (59) lying in a plane (10) containing a detector array (9), producing a scan error compensation signal (56). For wide scan fields of view (72), the scan position detector (59) comprises two pairs (94, 95) of triangular detectors, and means (86) for periodically switching therebetween.