Oblique view imaging analysis of a hypothetical earth observation satellite enabled with metamaterial-based image sensors

Abstract

This study presents the image quality estimates of a hypothetical earth observation satellite (EOS) equipped with metaxel-based image sensors for the oblique viewing angle of the pitch manoeuvre scenario. Oblique-view image estimation methods are proposed and demonstrated for the optical and detector images. Owing to the small detector period (p) of the metaxel supercells ($p=1.32\mu \mathrm{m}$), the optical system image is optics limited. For oblique angle of ${\theta }_p={15}^{\circ },{30}^{\circ },{45}^{\circ },{60}^{\circ }$, image quality degradation owing to the aberration remained minor and average signal to noise ratio (SNR) for nadir view was SNR = 64 because of the local field enhancement of the metaxels. However, changes in the viewing angle reduced the image quality. Correlation coefficient between synthetic ground truth and oblique viewing cases was corr = 0.833, 0.818, 0.793 and 0.745 for the viewing angles of interest listed above.

Keywords:

• Modelling
• image chain simulation
• apertures
• optical diffraction
• discrete Fourier transforms
• optical transfer functions
• convolution
• optical imaging
• image sensors
• image sampling
• geometrical optics
• telescopes
• image resolution
• oblique imaging
• off-axis imaging
• view angle

Acknowledgments

The author (KBA) has been supported by the Turkish Academy of Sciences (TÜBA), in the framework of the Young Scientist Award Program (TÜBA-GEBİP/2020). The research study presented in this article was based on the views of the authors and does not reflect on the official policy of the TÜBİTAK, Ministry of Industry and Technology, or the Turkish government.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Data availability statement

The code, data, and materials that support the findings of this article are not publicly available due to restrictions.