{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,13]],"date-time":"2026-05-13T15:14:07Z","timestamp":1778685247213,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":24,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,3]],"date-time":"2020-01-03T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1578009600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"NASA Langley Research Center through Science Systems and Applications, Inc.","award":["NNL16AA05C, Subcontract No. 21606-16-036, Task Assignment M.001C (CERES) with Virginia Tech"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NNL16AA05C, Subcontract No. 21606-16-036, Task Assignment M.001C (CERES) with Virginia Tech"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Narrow field-of-view scanning thermistor bolometer radiometers have traditionally been used to monitor the earth\u2019s radiant energy budget from low earth orbit (LEO). Such instruments use a combination of cross-path scanning and along-path spacecraft motion to obtain a patchwork of punctual observations which are ultimately assembled into a mosaic. Monitoring has also been achieved using non-scanning instruments operating in a push-broom mode in LOE and imagers operating in geostationary orbit. The current contribution considers a fourth possibility, that of an imager operating in LEO. The system under consideration consists of a Ritchey-Chr\u00e9tien telescope illuminating a plane two-dimensional microbolometer array. At large field angles, the focal length of the candidate instrument is field-angle dependent, resulting in a blurred image in the readout plane. Presented is a full-field focusing algorithm based on an artificial neural network (ANN). Absorbed power distributions on the microbolometer array produced by discretized scenes are obtained using a high-fidelity Monte Carlo ray-trace (MCRT) model of the imager. The resulting readout array\/scene pairs are then used to train an ANN. We demonstrate that a properly trained ANN can be used to convert the readout power distribution into an accurate image of the corresponding discretized scene. This opens the possibility of using an ANN based on a high-fidelity imager model for numerical focusing of an actual imager.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs12010176","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,3]],"date-time":"2020-01-03T11:55:07Z","timestamp":1578052507000},"page":"176","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Numerical Focusing of a Wide-Field-Angle Earth Radiation Budget Imager Using an Artificial Neural Network"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1907-3018","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mehran","family":"Yarahmadi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"J. Robert","family":"Mahan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4085-0109","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Kevin","family":"McFall","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA 30144, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Anum Barki","family":"Ashraf","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Climate Science Branch, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA 23666, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,3]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1170","DOI":"10.1175\/1520-0477(1984)065<1170:TERBE>2.0.CO;2","article-title":"The Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE)","volume":"65","author":"Barkstrom","year":"1984","journal-title":"Bull. 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