Research and verification of key technologies for infrared polarization of non-cooperative space targets

Based on the target detection requirements of spacecraft infrared detectors and aerospace engineering principles, this paper proposes a non-cooperative target polarization feature processing data fusion algorithm and completes the entire process. All the work is based on a self-developed wide-spectrum polarization infrared sensing system. This algorithm innovatively constructs an infrared polarization dataset for space equipment by acquiring infrared polarization images from multiple angles. Combined with the single-level target monitoring network YOLOv7, a method for inverting the infrared polarization features of non-cooperative targets in space is developed and applied for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, to space target identification. Experimental results show that this method achieves a 95% accuracy rate in identification and detects 10 types of targets, including solar panels, satellites, antennas, docking rings, etc., with an inference time of 20 ms.

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Publication Details

Journal
Applied Optics
Published
2026-01-05
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1364/ao.585246
Primary Topic
Optical Polarization and Ellipsometry
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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Research and verification of key technologies for infrared polarization of non-cooperative space targets

Mingce Chen, Loulou Deng, Fangfei Li, Xinling Tian et al.
Applied Optics
Optical Polarization and Ellipsometry
article

Research and verification of key technologies for infrared polarization of non-cooperative space targets

Mingce Chen, Loulou Deng, Fangfei Li, Xinling Tian, Chang Li, Lin Li, Li Wang, Zhijun Tu, Li Yuan
article en

Abstract

Based on the target detection requirements of spacecraft infrared detectors and aerospace engineering principles, this paper proposes a non-cooperative target polarization feature processing data fusion algorithm and completes the entire process. All the work is based on a self-developed wide-spectrum polarization infrared sensing system. This algorithm innovatively constructs an infrared polarization dataset for space equipment by acquiring infrared polarization images from multiple angles. Combined with the single-level target monitoring network YOLOv7, a method for inverting the infrared polarization features of non-cooperative targets in space is developed and applied for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, to space target identification. Experimental results show that this method achieves a 95% accuracy rate in identification and detects 10 types of targets, including solar panels, satellites, antennas, docking rings, etc., with an inference time of 20 ms.

Applied OpticsVol. 65(5)
China Academy of Space Technology (CN)
Openalex Percentile: Top 97%
Optical Polarization and Ellipsometry
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Research and verification of key technologies for infrared polarization of non-cooperative space targets — Mingce Chen, Loulou Deng, et al. · Applied Optics (2026) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS