Understanding image quality losses due to smear in high-resolution remote sensing imaging systems

Abstract

Space-based high-resolution scanning array imaging sys- tems have the potential to introduce large amounts of image smear. When designing these systems, it is useful to understand how smear will degrade image quality. A brief description of the causes of smear and a simple mathematical model are presented. A series of image simulations (for a system in which lFN/p51.0, where l is the mean wavelength for a panchromatic system, FN is the system f number, and p is the pixel pitch of the detectors) are performed in which along scan smear (ranging from 1.0 to 8.0 pixels) is introduced. Using the National Imagery Inter- pretability Rating Scale (NIIRS), expert observers rated DNIIRS differ- ence in image quality between the images with simulated smear and the original ''unsmeared'' image. The functional relationship between smear error and image quality (in units of DNIIRS) is determined. © 1999 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers. (S0091-3286(99)01505-6)