Is Image Quality Important?

Abstract

The problem addressed by the study was to explore the feasibility of predicting air-to-ground target acquisition performance with electro-optical systems, based on “real world” data, in terms of specifiable, measureable, sensor image quality characteristics.

The approach was to review flight test and simulator test results, rejecting those which did not permit comparison of different image qualities under similar conditions. The surviving data sets did not, in general, use comparable measures of either image quality or performance. Consequently, a review of the relevant measures of those variables was also made. To the limited extent permitted by the data, it can be stated that (1) poor image quality sets performance limits, and (2) further improvement of adequate imagery results in rapidly diminishing benefits.

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