Evaluation of ΔT using statistical characteristics of the target and background

The conventional area weighted average temperature (AWAT) (Delta) T is a primary performance measure for characterizing target/background scenes. However, the AWAT definition is widely recognized as being inadequate for representing observer sensitivity in many target detection and acquisition tasks. This situation is particularly true for targets which are at short ranges relative to the observer or viewed through powered optics. In these cases the mid and high spatial frequency components provide distinctive cue features which dominate over the average or aggregate characteristics of the target. The authors examine alternative definitions of (Delta) T in order to identify more robust and accurate metrics for the evaluation of sensor and signature countermeasure performance. The analysis indicates that target/background scene descriptions using simple average parameters such as the mean and standard deviation are not sufficient for characterizing imaging sensor performance against targets with internal texture and contrast gradients in background clutter.© (1993) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.