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This paper introduces a real-time compact optronic SAR processor that has the capability to generate ENVISAT/ASAR image swaths of 100 km x 100 km in 10 seconds exhibiting slant plane sampling distances of 4 meters in azimuth and 1 meter in range. It may be instantaneously reconfigured to process data from any of the 7 ASAR image swath modes. In this respect, numerous SAR image sets may be produced immediately on-demand without bottleneck. A rapid SAR processor that also provides fine ground sampling distances in both azimuth and range directions could provide benefits for such applications as ship detection, landslide and flood monitoring, snow and ice coverage and glacier monitoring.

Synthetic aperture (SA) techniques are currently employed in a variety of imaging modalities, such as radar (SAR) and ladar (SAL). The advantage of fine resolution provided by these systems far outweighs the disadvantage of having large amounts of raw data to process to obtain the final image. Digital processors have been the mainstay for synthetic aperture processing since the 1980's; however, the original method was optical that is, it employed lenses and other optical elements. This paper provides a global review of a compact light weight optronic processor that combines optical and digital techniques for ultra-fast generation of synthetic aperture images. The overall design of the optronic processor is detailed, including the optical design and data control and handling. As well, its real-time capabilities are demonstrated. Example ENVISAT/ASAR images generated optronically are also presented and compared with ENVISAT Level 1 products. As well, the extended capabilities of optronic processing, including wavefront correction and interferometry are discussed. Finally, a tabletop synthetic aperture ladar system is introduced and SAL images generated using the exact optronic processor designed for SAR image generation are presented.

The alignment method of a fast catadioptric optical module with very large field of view is presented in this paper. The module is made of three aspheric optical components: a primary mirror, a secondary mirror and a field lens. To achieve the 22.6 degrees field of view, the secondary mirror makes a large obscuration requiring an F/0.75 working f-number to achieve the effective F/1.05. The catadioptric optical module was integrated with the IRXCAM-640 uncooled camera module made by INO. System spatial resolution is improved with the use of a 4-position microscan mechanism.

In order to determine whether chronic exposure to loud noise has demonstrable biological effects on humans, a study was conducted on the effect of mother's exposure to airport noise while pregnant upon birthweight and gestation lenght. In a first step birthweights of children were collected in 12 towns in the Paris area : a sample of 636 subjects from the Orly area (4 towns), another of 1432 subjects from the Roissy area (4 towns) and a reference sample of 1224 subjects from an area not submitted to the aircraft noise (4 towns).The analysis of weights in the three areas shows a significantly higher birthweight for the boys born in the non submitted aircraft noise area, meanweight : 3433.92 g, by comparison with Orly area, 3356.24 g, and Roissy area, 3355.95 g. The mean birthweights of girls of Orly, Roissy and reference samples were respectively : 3231.43 g, 3202.83 g and 3268.24 g.There is a significant difference only between the Roissy and reference samples.The second step of this study, actually in progress, concerns the analysis of the possible influence of other factors : mother's age, primiparity, gestational age, and so on. These factors could be combined or not.