Experimental comparison of three target acquisition models

The role of the atmosphere in target acquisition modeling is investigated experimentally. Three models are compared to experimental results measured on the Golan heights, Israel. Concepts considered are atmospheric attenuation versus atmospheric blur, and contrast limited (blur-limited) versus noise-limited imaging. Results indicate that the role of the atmosphere in target acquisition is blur rather than attenuation, and that for ranges on the order of a few kilometers modern sensors are limited by atmospheric blur rather than by noise.

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