The image distortions caused by the prisms are investigated in rotational double prism scanning imaging and the inverse ray tracing is performed to correct the image distortions.To evaluate the characteristic and the extent of distortions,the rotation angles of prisms and the incident direction are obtained based on the direction of the line of sight and the size of the field of view.The rays from the field of view span are traced through the two prisms based on the vector form Snell’s law.The image deformations are modeled as case examples for the infrared images of germanium prism system and the visible images of glass prism system.The result shows that the images are compressed along the deflection direction from the system axis and the deformations become more prominent with increase in deviation angle.To correct the distorted images,the rays from the image points are traced inversely through the prisms.A scanning imaging system for the visible band,based on the rotational double prism,is built and its image distortions are analyzed.The results show that the simulation predictions for image distortions are correspond with the experimental observations.The inverse ray tracing can effectively correct the distortion and fairly improve the quality of the distorted images for both simulation images and experimental images.The analysis results about distortion and its correction method have referenced value on the imaging applications of rotational double prism.