PROCESSING RETURNED LIGHT SIGNALS FROM INTERNAL REFERENCE TARGET

1 . A system, comprising:

a light source configured to emit light pulses;

a scanner configured to scan the emitted light pulses across an internal reference target internal to the system;

a detector configured to detect light that is at least a portion of light scattered by the internal reference target from at least a portion of the emitted light pulses; and

a processor configured to selectively gather detected optical property values of the detected light corresponding to a selective portion of the emitted light pulses scanned across the internal reference target and use the selectively gathered detected optical property values to determine one or more calibration values.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the internal reference target is positioned adjacent to a light sensor window of the system, and wherein the scanner is configured to scan the emitted light pulses past an edge of the light sensor window to scan across the internal reference target.

3 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the detector comprises an auxiliary detector in addition to a main detector for detecting downrange objects outside the system.

4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the scanner is configured to scan the emitted light pulses such that an azimuth angle at an end of a scan line is increased by a predetermined amount determined based on a location and a size of the internal reference target.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the selectively gathered detected optical property values comprise pulse energy values of the detected light.

6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the selectively gathered detected optical property values comprise pulse range values of the detected light.

7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to:

selectively gather the detected optical property values periodically;

compute a metric based on statistics of the gathered detected optical property values; and

compare the metric against a corresponding reference value to determine at least one of the one or more calibration values.

8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the selective portion of the emitted light pulses scanned across the internal reference target comprises a portion of the emitted light pulses scanned across a region of interest of the internal reference target, wherein the region of interest is a portion of the internal reference target away from an edge of the internal reference target by at least a predetermined threshold distance.

9 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the region of interest includes a center of the internal reference target.

10 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the region of interest is at least in part dynamically determined based on a scan pattern of the scanner.

11 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the region of interest is centered at an elevation corresponding to a dynamically tracked horizon line.

12 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the selectively gathered detected optical property values of the detected light correspond to pixels within the region of interest.

13 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to:

accumulate the selectively gathered detected optical property values of the detected light over a predetermined number of pixels in one frame, wherein the predetermined number of pixels span across a plurality of scan lines;

compute an average value as a metric based on the accumulated selectively gathered detected optical property values;

filter the metric; and

compare the filtered metric against a corresponding reference value to determine at least one of the one or more calibration values.

14 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the predetermined number of pixels comprises a number that is a power of two, and wherein the processor is configured to compute the average value by shifting the metric by a plurality of bits.

15 . A method, comprising:

emitting light pulses by a light source;

scanning by a scanner the emitted light pulses across an internal reference target internal to a system;

using a detector to detect light that is at least a portion of light scattered by the internal reference target from at least a portion of the emitted light pulses; and

selectively gathering by a processor detected optical property values of the detected light corresponding to a selective portion of the emitted light pulses scanned across the internal reference target and using the selectively gathered detected optical property values to determine one or more calibration values.

16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the selectively gathered detected optical property values comprise pulse energy values of the detected light.

17 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the selectively gathered detected optical property values comprise pulse range values of the detected light.

18 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the selective portion of the emitted light pulses scanned across the internal reference target comprises a portion of the emitted light pulses scanned across a region of interest of the internal reference target, wherein the region of interest is a portion of the internal reference target away from an edge of the internal reference target by at least a predetermined threshold distance.

19 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising:

accumulating the selectively gathered detected optical property values of the detected light over a predetermined number of pixels in one frame, wherein the predetermined number of pixels span across a plurality of scan lines;

computing an average value as a metric based on the accumulated selectively gathered detected optical property values;

filtering the metric; and

comparing the filtered metric against a corresponding reference value to determine at least one of the one or more calibration values.

20 . A system, comprising:

a processor configured to:

selectively gather detected optical property values of detected light corresponding to a selective portion of emitted light pulses scanned across an internal reference target, wherein the emitted light pulses are emitted by a light source, and wherein the emitted light pulses are scanned across the internal reference target internal to the system by a scanner, and wherein the detected light comprises light detected by a detector that is at least a portion of light scattered by the internal reference target from at least a portion of the emitted light pulses; and

use the selectively gathered detected optical property values to determine one or more calibration values; and

a memory coupled to the processor and configured to provide the processor with instructions.