<title>Night vision goggles resolution performance at low contrast levels</title>

Abstract

NVG (Night Vision Goggle) resolution performance data is usually given as measured against high contrast, black and white, targets. When NVGs are used as night vision aids for visual night flight, the scene viewed by the pilot is in most cases dominated by low contrast. Therefore, NVG performance at low contrast levels is more relevant to the piloting task than NVG resolution at high contrast levels. A set of resolution targets with different contrast levels was designed and ground tests performed at various light levels outdoors at night. The results showed a marked loss of resolution at lower contrast levels. The presentation will describe the test method, give the results and discuss how the results may be explained. A method for using the test results as the basis for correlating piloting performance to light levels will be presented.