Proceedings Article | 22 April 2009
Proc. SPIE. 7300, Infrared Imaging Systems: Design, Analysis, Modeling, and Testing XX
KEYWORDS: Signal to noise ratio, Infrared imaging, Electronics, Imaging systems, Sensors, Video, Denoising, Modulation transfer functions, Forward looking infrared, Minimum resolvable temperature difference
The PIRATE, short for Passive Infra Red Airborne Tracking Equipment, multi mode Infrared Sensor, has been
developed and manufactured by the Eurofirst consortium for the Eurofighter 2000 Aircraft. The consortium is led by
SELEX Galileo, contract award, from Italy, and includes THALES UK, and TECNOBIT from Spain.
Testing of the unit has been performed either in the laboratory and in flight.
In the laboratory, sophisticated measurement techniques to verify optical parameters like the MTF, the NETD and
the MRTD in the different Field of View have been employed, as well as for the detection, tracking and identification
functions.
On top of that, a flight test campaign has started to verify the performance, when operating in real scenarios, with
cooperative and opportunity targets, across different weather conditions, like clean sky, but also misty and cloudy
weather, haze and hail, generally not ideal to the infrared wavelength operation, either during tracking or imaging.
