Image Quality Effects In Optical Correlators

Three aspects of image quality and their effects in an optical matched spatial filter correlator are described. These concern operation on: digitized imagery, data with low modulation and low space bandwidth product, and synthetic reference imagery. To address these practical problems, we employ: spatial filtering, edge enhancement, use of different apertures, photoreduced imagery, and digital preprocessed data. The first exuerimental data on optical matched spatial filter correlations with synthetic reference imagery and the first comparative data on digitally and optically processed multisensor image correlations are included. From these experiments, we find an optical weighted matched spatial filter correlator to be adequate for most multisensor data and that advanced digital preprocessing operators are necessary when presently available synthetic reference imagery is used.