Book excerpt: Gets you quickly up to speed with the theoretical and practical aspects of free space optical systems engineering design and analysis One of today's fastest growing system design and analysis disciplines is free space optical systems engineering for communications and remote sensing applications. It is concerned with creating a light signal with certain characteristics, how this signal is affected and changed by the medium it traverses, how these effects can be mitigated both pre- and post-detection, and if after detection, it can be differentiated from noise under a certain standard, e.g., receiver operating characteristic. Free space optical systems engineering is a complex process to design against and analyze. While there are several good introductory texts devoted to key aspects of optics—such as lens design, lasers, detectors, fiber and free space, optical communications, and remote sensing—until now, there were none offering comprehensive coverage of the basics needed for optical systems engineering. If you're an upper-division undergraduate, or first-year graduate student, looking to acquire a practical understanding of electro-optical engineering basics, this book is intended for you. Topics and tools are covered that will prepare you for graduate research and engineering in either an academic or commercial environment. If you are an engineer or scientist considering making the move into the opportunity rich field of optics, this all-in-one guide brings you up to speed with everything you need to know to hit the ground running, leveraging your experience and expertise acquired previously in alternate fields. Following an overview of the mathematical fundamentals, this book provides a concise, yet thorough coverage of, among other crucial topics: Maxwell Equations, Geometrical Optics, Fourier Optics, Partial Coherence theory Linear algebra, Basic probability theory, Statistics, Detection and Estimation theory, Replacement Model detection theory, LADAR/LIDAR detection theory, optical communications theory Critical aspects of atmospheric propagation in real environments, including commonly used models for characterizing beam, and spherical and plane wave propagation through free space, turbulent and particulate channels Lasers, blackbodies/graybodies sources and photodetectors (e.g., PIN, ADP, PMT) and their inherent internal noise sources The book provides clear, detailed discussions of the basics for free space optical systems design and analysis, along with a wealth of worked examples and practice problems—found throughout the book and on a companion website. Their intent is to help you test and hone your skill set and assess your comprehension of this important area. Free Space Optical Systems Engineering is an indispensable introduction for students and professionals alike.