Building Earth Observation Cameras

80 Building Earth Observation Cameras

camera include the camera electronics, the satellite attitude jitter while in

orbit, and even the atmosphere. All these contribute to the overall MTF of the

system. As discussed in Section 2.6, the resulting MTF of the system is the

product of all the MTFs of its components, that is

MTF

camera

= MTF

optics

× MTF

detector

× MTF

electronics

× — — — — — — -

If we have to distinguish any two adjacent objects, there should be a differ-

ence in the radiance from these two objects at the wavelength of observation,

which we call contrast. If the MTF brings down the contrast of targets in the

recorded image to a level below ...