Design of volume hologram filters for suppression of daytime sky brightness in artificial satellite detection

Abstract

We present a design methodology for volume hologram filters (VHFs) with telephoto objectives to improve contrast of solar-illuminated artificial satellites observed with a ground-based optical telescope and camera system operating in daytime. VHFs provide the ability to selectively suppress incoming light based on the range to the source, and are used to suppress the daylight background noise since signal (satellite) and noise (daylight scatterers) are located at different altitudes. We derive the overall signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) enhancement as the system metric, and balance main design parameters over two key performance considerations--daylight attenuation and spectral bandwidth--to optimize the functioning of VHFs. Overall SNR enhancement of 7.5 has been achieved. Usage of multi-pixel cameras can potentially further refine this system.