Atmospheric turbulence modulation transfer function for infrared target acquisition modeling

Keith A. Krapels; Ronald G. Driggers; Richard H. Vollmerhausen; Norman S. Kopeika; Carl E. Halford

doi:10.1117/1.1390299

1 September 2001 Atmospheric turbulence modulation transfer function for infrared target acquisition modeling

Keith A. Krapels, Ronald G. Driggers, Richard H. Vollmerhausen, Norman S. Kopeika, Carl E. Halford

Optical Engineering, Vol. 40, Issue 9, (September 2001). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.1390299

A new direction for the US Army Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate is the development of ultra-narrow field of view (UNFOV) infrared target acquisition (TA) systems. Frequently, the performance of these systems is limited by atmospheric turbulence in the imaging path. It is desirable to include the effects of atmospheric turbulence blur in infrared TA models. The current TA models are currently linear shift invariant (LSI) systems with component modulation transfer functions (MTFs). The use of additional MTFs, to account for atmospheric turbulence, requires that the turbulence blur have LSI properties. The primary unresolved issue with the treatment of turbulence blur as an MTF is the LSI characteristics of the blur. Significant variation in spatial blur and temporal blur prohibit the use of a single MTF in an LSI target acquisition model. Researchers at Ben-Gurion University (BGU) use a TA model that includes an LSI blur, which is a temporal average of the turbulence blur. The research described here evaluates the BGU-type treatment of atmospheric MTF and determines it reasonable for inclusion in the US Army's TA model. In addition to the spatial characteristics, the temporal variation of the turbulence blur is also described.

©(2001) Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)

Citation Download Citation

Keith A. Krapels, Ronald G. Driggers, Richard H. Vollmerhausen, Norman S. Kopeika, and Carl E. Halford "Atmospheric turbulence modulation transfer function for infrared target acquisition modeling," Optical Engineering 40(9), (1 September 2001). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.1390299

Published: 1 September 2001

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available