Model of Infrared Radiation Polarization of a Drone
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64915/RADAP.2026.103.%25pKeywords:
thermal imager, polarization, degree of polarization, emission thermal radiation, reflected thermal radiationAbstract
A physico-mathematical model of infrared (IR) radiation polarization from a drone, which can be used in the creation of polarimetric thermal imagers (PTI) for detection and recognition of surveillance objects, is developed.
Analysis of Research. Thermal imaging systems are widely used, primarily in military applications, such as in the thermal cameras of drones. The principle of operation of classical thermal imagers is based on converting the brightness of IR radiation from the observed object and background from the plane of objects into an appropriate distribution of background-target scene (BTS) brightness on a display screen within the visible spectrum. If the contrast is low or absent, it becomes impossible to detect such an object. Current models do not simultaneously account for the drone’s emission and reflected radiation, leading to errors in the detection range estimation. The use of polarization properties of radiation allows solving this problem. Therefore, developing and researching a model of IR radiation polarization from the drone is a very important task for creating promising PTI for drone detection.
Unresolved parts of the overall problem include the lack of a model that considers both emission and reflected polarization simultaneously.
The purpose of the article is to develop a physico-mathematical model of IR radiation polarization from a drone, which can be used in the creation of PTI systems designed for drone detection and recognition.
Research material presentation — the drone is modeled as a flat plate characterized by an reflection coefficient and a complex refractive index, which allowed the development of methods for calculating parameters of elliptically polarized radiation.
Analysis of the developed methods indicates that for modeling the polarization state of the observed object’s radiation, it is appropriate to select the image intensity, degree of polarization, and polarization angle, all determined by the Stokes parameters.
Comparison of obtained results with those from other researchers involves scientifically substantiating that the polarization of IR radiation from objects and backgrounds, due to their own and reflected radiation, has an opposite character, which significantly worsens the overall degree of polarization.
Conclusions from this research. The obtained results are relevant for developing a test object model, necessary for designing PTI systems.
Future prospects include conducting experimental measurements of IR radiation polarization from real drones and atmospheric conditions, which will help refine the test object parameters.
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