Passive millimeter-wave cross polarization imaging and phenomenology

Passive millimeter-wave (mmW) imaging has many specific defense, security and safety applications, due to the fact that all terrestrial bodies above absolute zero are emissive, and these wavelengths are not scattered by normal obscurants such as haze, fog, smoke, dust, sandstorms, clouds, or fabrics. We have previously demonstrated results from the construction of a 94 GHz passive mmW far-field imaging system utilizing optical upconversion, which imaged in only horizontal polarization. The effective radiometric temperature of an object is a combination of the object's surface and scattered radiometric temperatures. The surface radiometric temperature is a function of the object's emissivity, which is polarization dependent. Imaging with radiometric temperature data from both polarizations will allow a greater identification of the scene being imaged, and allow the recognition of subtle features which were not previously observable. This additional functionality is accomplished through the installation of added equipment and programming on our system, thus allowing the simultaneous data collection of imagery in both polarizations. Herein, we present our experimental procedures, results and passive mmW images obtained by using our far-field imaging system, a brief discussion of the phenomenology observed through the application of these techniques, as well as the preliminary details regarding our work on a 3-D passive mmW simulator capable of true physical polarization dependent effective emissivity and reflectivity rendering, based on the open-source Blender engine.