Performance analysis of super-wide field of view imaging system used for space target detection

With the development of wide-field detection technique, the super-wide Field of View(FOV) imaging system has been used in many advanced fields, such as missile pre-warning, extravehicular observation, airborne warning, and so on. The space application of super-wide FOV imaging system was discussed, and the advantages of space application were analyzed. The system detection performance was deduced theoretically and calculated numerically from five aspects. The results show that, compared with the small-field imaging systems, the super-wide FOV system has lower space false dismissal probability, which makes the system have less detection blind zone; the system has larger spatial resolution, which makes the target have a longer imaging time and benefits the target extraction; however, other performances of super-wide FOV system are relatively weaker. Considering all the performances, the super-wide FOV imaging system may not suitable for long-range space target detection, but can be used in omnidirectional Space Situation Awareness(SSA) and real-time threat warning of long-range strong radiation for the host satellite.