Evaluation of range compensation in thermal imaging of ships using the Eopace data base

Abstract

An ever-present problem in analyzing thermal images for target signatures is the influence of atmospheric effects in the signature observed at significant range. The compensation for these effects, mostly atmospheric absorption and scattering and path radiance requires accurate knowledge of the meteorological parameters for the area involved at the time of the measurements. Based both on infrared image files taken during the Electro-optical Propagation Assessment in Coastal Environments (EOPACE) experiment together with the EOPACE environmental data base and on the SeaRad propagation code to generate radiance, a range compensation algorithm is proposed in this thesis