Electro-optical system performance analysis for airborne and spaceborne photography

ELOP develops several kinds of advanced electro-optical systems for airborne and spaceborne photography. Unfortunately, there are no available softwares for EO systems performance analysis such as FLIR92, which exists for Infrared systems. ELOP developed a new EO System Performance Analysis Software (EOSPAS) for line-scan, ICCD and TV systems. This software runs under Windows and is interfaced with the PCModwin (Ontar product) atmospheric code allowing direct Modtran runs. The software is user friendly and has a GUI. The EOSPAS can be used for system performance and sensitivity analyses, predictions and optimizations. This model takes into account the EO system components, the platform motion and vibration data, the atmospherics and turbulence conditions and the target characteristics. The system SNR is calculated taken into account the total system MTF, the signals from atmospheric and target characteristic data, the optical transmittance, the detector QE, the electronic noise originated form atmospheric effects and the internal electronic processing. As an output, the Ground Resolved Distance, SNR, Detection, Recognition and Identification Ranges and Noise Equivalent Target Contrast are calculated and displayed. A detailed input-output report can be printed. A batch mode allows the automatic serial running of several parameters and scenarios in one button click, i.e.: one could run performance prediction for several ranges, sun elevation angles or other system parameters. In this paper, the EO model highlights will be presented, and the software features will be described briefly.© (2000) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.