Design of Matching Imaging on Agile Satellite with Wide-Swath Whiskbroom Payloads along the Coastal Zone

The non-linearly curved coastal zone is very long and wide. The traditional satellite can’t cover the whole coastal zone in a single scan. So, the method of matching imaging combining the adjustment of satellite attitude and the scanning of the swing mirror are proposed. Firstly, based on the position of feature points of the coastal zone, the attitude when the optical axis of the satellite always points to the feature points is calculated. According to the width of the sea and land on both sides of the coastline, the parameters of the swing mirror of wide-swath whiskbroom payloads are analyzed. Secondly, the velocity vector model considering time-varying satellite attitude and the dynamic scanning of the swing mirror is constructed. The schemes of matching imaging such as adjustments of yaw angle and detector are developed. Finally, the precise experiment is designed to verify the correctness of the matching imaging. The experimental results show that the resolution of the matching imaging is less than 1 pixel and its modulation transfer function (MTF) is greater than the human eye’s minimum MTF of 0.026. The method of matching imaging using the adjustment of satellite attitude and the scanning of the swing mirror can realize wide imaging along the coastline and improve the temporal resolution at the same time.