Ground-based corner cube retroreflector optimal design for the geolocation validation of satellite photon counting lidar

The corner cube retroreflector (CCR) can be applied in the on-orbit geolocation validation of satellite photon counting lidar, which provides insight into the fidelity of laser footprint geolocation on the ground. A novel parameter optimization method, to the best of our knowledge, is proposed to enhance the performance of the CCR. Based on the velocity aberration effect of the satellite and the far-field diffraction pattern (FFDP) of the CCR, a mathematical model with respect to the received energy and design parameters of theCCR, including the aperture, the dihedral angle errors (DAE), and the curvature radius of the front face (CROF), is derived. We can achieve the optimal design parameters of the CCR through searching for the locations of the maximal and uniform FFDP on the circumference of the aberration position. We resolve the optimal aperture, the DAE, and the CROF of the CCR as 14.3 mm, 2.4 in., and 6000 m for the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) lidar. The received energy derived from the derived parameters has a significant improvement of around 26 times compared with the CCR parameters employed in the ICESat-2. The results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is effective, and the regression models of the optimal aperture and DAE for different satellite altitudes are conveniently employed in the design of the CCR for the geolocation validation of satellite photon counting lidar. (C) 2021 Optical Society of America