The remote sensing imaging requirements of aerial cameras require their optical system to have wide temperature adaptability. Based on the optical passive athermal technology, the expression of thermal power offset of a single lens in the catadioptric optical system is first derived, and then a mathematical model for efficient optimization of materials is established; finally, the mechanical material combination (mirror and housing material) is optimized according to the comprehensive weight of offset with temperature change and the position change of the equivalent single lens, and achieve optimization of the lens material on an athermal map. In order to verify the effectiveness of the method, an example of a catadioptric aerial optical system with a focal length of 350 mm is designed. The results show that in the temperature range of -40 °C to 60 °C, the diffraction-limited MTF of the designed optical system is 0.59 (at 68 lp/mm), the MTF of each field of view is greater than 0.39, and the thermal defocus is less than 0.004 mm, which is within one time of the focal depth, indicating that the imaging quality of the optical system basically does not change with temperature, meeting the stringent application requirements of the aerial camera.
Keywords: achromatic; aerial camera; athermal design; catadioptric optical system; temperature change.