Imaging through ground-level turbulence by fourier telescopy: simulations and preliminary experiments

Fourier telescopy imaging is a recently-developed imaging method that relies on active
structured-light illumination of the object. Reflected/scattered light is measured by a large
“light bucket” detector; processing of the detected signal yields the magnitude and phase
of spatial frequency components of the object reflectance or transmittance function. An
inverse Fourier transform results in the image.
In 2012 a novel method, known as time-average Fourier telescopy (TAFT), was
introduced by William T. Rhodes as a means for diffraction-limited imaging through
ground-level atmospheric turbulence. This method, which can be applied to long
horizontal-path terrestrial imaging, addresses a need that is not solved by the adaptive
optics methods being used in astronomical imaging.
Field-experiment verification of the TAFT concept requires instrumentation that is not
available at Florida Atlantic University. The objective of this doctoral research program is thus to demonstrate, in the absence of full-scale experimentation, the feasibility of
time-average Fourier telescopy through (a) the design, construction, and testing of smallscale
laboratory instrumentation capable of exploring basic Fourier telescopy datagathering
operations, and (b) the development of MATLAB-based software capable of
demonstrating the effect of kilometer-scale passage of laser beams through ground-level
turbulence in a numerical simulation of TAFT.