Short wavelength terrestrial backgrounds clutter experiment

Short wavelength terrestrial backgrounds (STB) clutter experiments will be performed by the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) satellite using the ultraviolet and visible imagers and spectrographic imagers (UVISI) system. These experiments will obtain both temporal and spatial atmospheric statistics in nadir-looking geometries. A comprehensive database will be acquired and used to quantify variations in the background clutter due to changing viewing geometries and dynamic atmospheric conditions. This database will be used to validate radiance and clutter prediction models such as those used in systems design studies. A systematic pipeline approach has been designed to process and analyze the data. Images will be sorted into fixed passband data and spectrographic images. The full-frame images and sub- frame images will be described by a set of structure model parameters which are in the same format as the NSS (non-stationary stochastic structure) model utilized to model atmospheric IR structure. The statistical parameters will constitute the reduced data products. The approach is dictated by the large volume of data anticipated (> 2 Terabytes) and will report the UV clutter data in the same format as the IR-band clutter measured by the Spirit-III sensor.© (1994) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.