Jeffrey A. Mendenhall
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Featured researches published by Jeffrey A. Mendenhall.
Proceedings of the IEEE | 2007
Jeffrey A. Mendenhall; Lawrence M. Candell; P. I. Hopman; George Zogbi; Don M. Boroson; David O. Caplan; Constantine J. Digenis; David R. Hearn; Ryan Shoup
Demand for increased capacity in deep-space to Earth communications systems continues to rise as sensor data rates climb and mission requirements expand. Optical free-space laser communications systems offer the potential for operating at data rates 10 to 1000 times that of current radio-frequency systems. A key element in an optical communications system is the Earth receiver. This paper reviews the design of a distributed photon-counting receiver array composed of four meter-class telescopes, developed as a part of the mars laser communications demonstration (MLCD) project. This design offers a cost-effective and adaptable alternative approach to traditional large, single-aperture receive elements while preserving the expected improvement in data rates enabled by free-space laser communications systems. Key challenges in developing distributed receivers and details of the MLCD design are discussed.
Remote Sensing | 1999
Donald E. Lencioni; Constantine J. Digenis; William E. Bicknell; David R. Hearn; Jeffrey A. Mendenhall
An Advanced Land Imager (ALI) will be flown on the first Earth Observing mission (EO-1) under NASAs New Millennium Program (NMP). The ALI contains a number of key NMP technologies. These include a 15 degree wide field-of-view, push-broom instrument architecture with a 12.5 cm aperture diameter, compact multispectral detector arrays, non-cryogenic HgCdTe for the short wave infrared bands, silicon carbide optics, and a multi-level solar calibration technique. The focal plane contains multispectral and panchromatic (MS/Pan) detector arrays with a total of 10 spectral bands spanning the 0.4 to 2.5 micrometer wavelength region. Seven of these correspond to the heritage Landsat bands. The instantaneous fields of view of the detectors are 14.2 (mu) rad for the Pan band and 42.6 (mu) rad for the MS bands. The partially populated focal plane provides a 3 degree cross-track coverage corresponding to 37 km on the ground. The focal plane temperature is maintained at 220 K by means of a passive radiator. The instrument environmental and performance testing has been completed. Preliminary data analysis indicates excellent performance. This paper presents an overview of the instrument design, the calibration strategy, and results of the pre-flight performance measurements. It also discusses the potential impact of ALI technologies to future Landsat-like instruments.
Sensors, Systems, and Next-Generation Satellites VI | 2003
Hugh H. Kieffer; Thomas C. Stone; Robert A. Barnes; Steven C. Bender; Robert E. Eplee; Jeffrey A. Mendenhall; Lawrence Ong
The Robotic Lunar Observatory (ROLO) project has developed a spectral irradiance model of the Moon that accounts for variations with lunar phase through the bright half of a month, lunar librations, and the location of an Earth-orbiting spacecraft. The methodology of comparing spacecraft observations of the Moon with this model has been developed to a set of standardized procedures so that comparisons can be readily made. In the cases where observations extend over several years (e.g., SeaWiFS), instrument response degradation has been determined with precision of about 0.1% per year. Because of the strong dependence of lunar irradiance on geometric angles, observations by two spacecraft cannot be directly compared unless acquired at the same time and location. Rather, the lunar irradiance based on each spacecraft instrument calibration can be compared with the lunar irradiance model. Even single observations by an instrument allow inter-comparison of its radiometric scale with other instruments participating in the lunar calibration program. Observations by SeaWiFS, ALI, Hyperion and MTI are compared here.
international geoscience and remote sensing symposium | 2001
David R. Hearn; C. J. Digenis; D. E. Lencioni; Jeffrey A. Mendenhall; J. B. Evans; R. D. Welsh
The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) is the primary instrument flown on the first Earth Observing mission (EO-1), which was developed under NASAs New Millennium Program (NMP). The ALI contains a number of innovative features. These include the basic instrument architecture which employs a push-broom data collection mode, a wide field of view optical design, compact multi-spectral detector arrays, non-cryogenic HgCdTe for the short wave infrared bands, silicon carbide optics, and a multi-level solar calibration technique. The sensor includes detector arrays that operate in ten bands, one panchromatic, six VNIR and three SWIR, spanning the range from 0.433 to 2.35 /spl mu/m. This paper describes the instrument design, provides an overview of the ground testing and calibration of the instrument and a summary of the sensor performance in space. In particular, the spatial imaging performance of ALI is discussed. Sample images are shown that demonstrate the improved capability of the sensor in terms of Pan band resolution and signal-to-noise ratio in all bands. On-orbit images have been analyzed and the results are compared with pre-launch calibrations. The instrument performance appears to meet all expectations.
SPIE's International Symposium on Optical Science, Engineering, and Instrumentation | 1999
David R. Hearn; Jeffrey A. Mendenhall; Berton C. Willard
Spatial calibrations have been performed on the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) of the EO-1 satellite. Topics discussed in this paper include end-to-end imaging test, measurements of system modulation transfer function (MTF), and pixel lines of sight. The MTF measurements were made by recording scans of a knife-edge past the pixels. The techniques used to place the focal plane at the correct focal position are described, since they make use of MTF measurements. Line-of- sight measurements combine theodolite measurements of the telescope distortions and the photolithographic patterns of the detector arrays with images of a stationary Ronchi ruling recorded with the instrument at its normal operating conditions in a thermal vacuum chamber.
SPIE's International Symposium on Optical Science, Engineering, and Instrumentation | 1999
Jeffrey A. Mendenhall; Donald E. Lencioni; Alexander C. Parker
The radiometric calibration of the Earth Observation 1 Advanced Land Imager (EO-1 ALI) was completed in the Spring of 1999 at Lincoln Laboratory. This calibration was conducted with the ALI as a fully assembled instrument in a thermal vacuum chamber at operation temperatures. The ALI was calibrated radiometrically at the system level from 0 to > 100 percent Earth-equivalent albedo using a combination of internal and external halogen and Xenon lamps attached to a large integrating sphere. Absolute radiometric calibration was achieved by measuring the output of the integrating sphere at each radiance level prior to ALI illumination using a NIST-traceable spectroradiometer. Additional radiometric characterization of this instrument was obtained from data collected using a collimator designed for the spectral calibration of the ALI. In this paper we review the techniques employed during radiometric calibration and present the measured gain, linearity, offset, signal-to- noise ratio and polarization sensitivity of each pixel. The testing result of a novel, in-flight solar calibration technique are also discussed. Finally, the results from a Lincoln Laboratory/Goddard Space Flight Center Landsat transfer radiometric study are presented.
SPIE's International Symposium on Optical Science, Engineering, and Instrumentation | 1998
Jeffrey A. Mendenhall; Donald E. Lencioni; David R. Hearn; Alexander C. Parker
The EO-1 Advanced Land Imager (ALI) is the first earth- orbiting instrument to be flown under NASAs New Millennium program. The ALI employs novel wide-angle optics and a multispectral and panchromatic spectrometer. EO-1 is a technology verification project designed to demonstrate comparable or improved Landsat spatial and spectral resolution with substantial mass, volume, and cost savings. This paper provides as overview of in-flight calibration and performance assessment of the Advanced Land Imager. Include dare techniques for calibrating and assessing focus and MTF using long, straight man-made objects and monitoring of radiometric linearity and offsets using an internal calibration source, standard Earth references scenes, and solar and lunar observations.
international geoscience and remote sensing symposium | 2001
Jeffrey A. Mendenhall; David R. Hearn; J. B. Evans; D. E. Lencioni; C. J. Digenis; R. D. Welsh
The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) is one of three instruments flown on the first Earth Observing mission (EO-1) under NASAs New Millennium Program (NMP). The primary NMP mission objective is to flight-validate advanced technologies that will enable dramatic improvements in performance, cost, mass and schedule for future, Landsat-like, Earth remote sensing instruments. ALI contains a number of innovative features, including all the Category 1 technology demonstrations of the EO-1 mission. These include the basic instrument architecture which employs a push-broom data collection mode, a wide field of view optical design, compact multispectral detector arrays, non-cryogenic HgCdTe for the short wave infrared bands, silicon carbide optics and a multi-level solar calibration technique. The Earth Observing-1 spacecraft was successfully launched on November 21, 2000. During the first sixty days on orbit, several Earth scenes were collected and on-orbit calibration techniques were exercised by the Advanced Land Imager. This paper presents the status of ALI radiometric performance characterization obtained from the data collected during that period.
international geoscience and remote sensing symposium | 2001
D. E. Lencioni; Jeffrey A. Mendenhall; D.P. Ryan-Howard
The solar calibration procedure for the EO-1 Advanced Land Imager (ALI) is described. Preliminary on-orbit results are presented and compared to the pre-launch calibration.
Remote Sensing | 2006
Brian L. Markham; Lawrence Ong; Julia A. Barsi; Jeffrey A. Mendenhall; Donald E. Lencioni; Dennis L. Helder; Douglas M. Hollaren; Ron Morfitt
The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) was developed as a prototype sensor for follow on missions to Landsat-7. It was launched in November 2000 on the Earth Observing One (EO-1) satellite as a nominal one-year technology demonstration mission. As of this writing, the sensor has continued to operate in excess of 5 years. Six of the ALIs nine multi-spectral (MS) bands and the panchromatic band have similar spectral coverage as those on the Landsat-7 ETM+. In addition to on-board lamps, which have been significantly more stable than the lamps on ETM+, the ALI has a solar diffuser and has imaged the moon monthly since launch. This combined calibration dataset allows understanding of the radiometric stability of the ALI system, its calibrators and some differentiation of the sources of the changes with time. The solar dataset is limited as the mechanism controlling the aperture to the solar diffuser failed approximately 18 months after launch. Results over 5 years indicate that: the shortest wavelength band (443 nm) has degraded in response about 2%; the 482 nm and 565 nm bands decreased in response about 1%; the 660 nm, 790 nm and 868 nm bands each degraded about 5%; the 1250 nm and 1650 nm bands did not change significantly and the 2215 nm band increased in response about 2%.