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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 163 records · Page 9
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1975

Resolution enhancement of ERTS imagery

A method is described for combined interpolation and enhancement of ERTS multispectral scanner data sets. Previous research has shown that good enhancement is most easily achieved when there are a large number of data points contained within the radius of gyration of the system point spread function. This requirement can be met using ERTS data by interpolating the data before enhancement. By varying the interpolation scale factor the data set can be empirically matched to a precalculated optimum restoration filter. Once the proper match of data and filter has been found the enhancement can be carried out directly or the enhancement and interpolation operations can be combined into a single filter thereby greatly reducing the processing time. Experimental results of applying this technique are shown along with more conventional methods of image interpolation and enlargement.

Mcgillem, C. D.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Research in solar physics

Results from research in solar physics related to the Skylab/ATM S-056 X-Ray Experiment are presented. Included is a description of the data obtained by the X-Ray Telescope. Also presented are the S-056 filter bandpasses, the point-spread function, the meaning or interpretation of broadband filter observations, and reports on the analysis of some of the solar observations.

Henze, W.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Documentation of the recording environment

The distortion and degradation of the informational content of satellite sensed data by scene generation and atmospheric propagation are discussed. A method is described for obtaining a system point spread function representing the fractional radiance poisoning each pixel gives and receives. The sensor data output is then reprocessed or restored. The degree of restoration is signal to noise dependent. A technique is given for approximating the impact of the atmosphere on the propagation of scene radiance.

Ritter, M.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Thoughts on standardization of parameters for image evaluation

Images received for image processing and analysis are obtained from a wide variety of sources and with a wide variety of sensors. Because it is desirable to have image processing algorithms be as universally applicable as possible, they should be designed, where possible, to be insensitive to the parametric variations of the source material. Where this is not possible, these variations must be taken into account. Therefore, it is necessary to consider what parameters may be defined in common across a suite of image types. Objective parameters or measurements of images which, in the proper combinations, may serve as surrogates for real images may be pixel-specific, location dependent, or combinations thereof. Parameters which have proven useful in defining the characteristics of images include the gray scale linearity, granularity of the quantization, spectral content, geometrical fidelity, resolution of the system expressed as either the point spread function or the modulation transfer function, and the spatial frequency content and characteristics of the data itself.

Billingsley, F. C.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Diameters of the Galilean satellites from Pioneer data

Pioneers 10 and 11 have transmitted seven images of the Galilean satellites with surface resolutions on the order of several hundred kilometers. Because the point-spread function is well determined, it has been possible to measure the radius of each of the four satellites to a precision of typically plus or minus 30 km. The method used fits a semicircle to the illuminated limb by varying the center coordinates and radius until the best-fit criteria are satisfied. Careful attention is given to locating the true edge position within the blurred image. The radius determinations and corresponding densities for the satellites are: Io (1840 plus or minus 30, 3.41 plus or minus 0.19), Europa (1552 plus or minus 20, 3.06 plus or minus 0.15), Ganymede (2650 plus or minus 25, 1.90 plus or minus 0.06), and Callisto (2420 plus or minus 20, 1.81 plus or minus 0.05), where the units are in kilometers and grams per cubic centimeters, respectively.

Smith, P. H.↗
NASA NTRS1979

Observations of the Saturn D ring

Observations of Saturn at both large and small phase angles were obtained in the 890-nm methane band with a solid state charge coupled device (CCD). When model intensity profiles are convolved with appropriate point spread functions, intensity levels ranging from 5 to 3% of the maximum of ring B are required in the ring D region of the models to match the data, in substantial agreement with previous results obtained through photographic photometry. The normal optical thickness of the D ring is about 0.02 and seems to show the same phase function as the other rings. The division between the C and D ring was not observed, possibly due to the seeing limited image resolution.

Larson, S. M.↗
NASA NTRS1980

A parametric study of aliasing error for a narrow field of view scanning radiometer

Starting from the general measurement equation, it is shown that a NFOV scanner can be approximated by a spatially invariant system whose point spread function depends on the detector shape and angular characteristics and electrical filter transfer function for given patches at the top of the atmosphere. The radiometer is modeled by a detector, electrical filter, analog to digital converter followed by a reconstruction filter. The errors introduced by aliasing and blurring into a reconstruction of the input radiant exitance are modeled and analyzed for various detector shapes, sampling intervals, electrical filters and scan types. Quantitative results on the errors introduced are presented showing the various tradeoffs between design parameters. The results indicate that proper selection of detector shape coupled with electrical filter can reduce aliasing errors significantly.

Halyo, N.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Outer planet investigations using a CCD camera system

Problems related to analog noise, data transfer from the camera buffer to the storage computer, and loss of sensitivity of a two dimensional charge coupled device imaging system are reported. To calibrate the CCD system, calibrated UBV pinhole scans of the Saturn disk were obtained with a photoelectric area scanning photometer. Atmospheric point spread functions were also obtained. The UBV observations and models of the Saturn atmosphere are analyzed.

Price, M. J.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Extended range X-ray telescope: X-ray microscope design

A glancing incidence X-ray microscope using a confocal hyperboloid ellipsoid mirror was designed to couple optically a Wolter 1 telescope to a CCD focal plane detector. Both the RMS spot size and the point spread function calculations were used to evaluate the resolution, defocusing, and vignetting effects of the system for microscope focal lengths of 1, 1.5, and 2 meters and for magnifications varying from 2 to 10x. For the specific application with the S-056 telescope, a 2 meter, 8x microscope with a fabrication ratio of the microscope mirror length to the inner diameter at hyperboloid ellipsoid intersection of 2.5 was designed to be used with a thinned, back illuminated CCD detector array with 320 by 512, 30 micron pixels.

Shealy, D. L.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Accelerator test of the coded aperture mask technique for gamma-ray astronomy

A prototype gamma-ray telescope employing the coded aperture mask technique has been constructed and its response to a point source of 20 MeV gamma-rays has been measured. The point spread function is approximately a Gaussian with a standard deviation of 12 arc minutes. This resolution is consistent with the cell size of the mask used and the spatial resolution of the detector. In the context of the present experiment, the error radius of the source position (90 percent confidence level) is 6.1 arc minutes.

Jenkins, T. L.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Throughput of diffraction-limited field optics systems for infrared and millimetric telescopes

Telescopes for submillimeter wavelengths have point spread functions some millimeters or centimeters in diameter, but the detectors may be only fractions of a millimeter in size. Thus a field aperture and collecting optics are needed. Optimizing the aperture by a calculation of the effects of diffraction on signal and resolution as a function of size of the collecting aperture is shown. Calculations are compared to experimental results from observations of Mars at submillimeter wavelengths.

Hildebrand, R. H.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Urban area change detection procedures with remote sensing data

The underlying factors affecting the detection and identification of nonurban to urban land cover change using satellite data were studied. Computer programs were developed to create a digital scene and to simulate the effect of the sensor point spread function (PSF) on the transfer of modulation from the scene to an image of the scene. The theory behind the development of a digital filter representing the PSF is given as well as an example of its application. Atmospheric effects on modulation transfer are also discussed. A user's guide and program listings are given.

Maxwell, E. L.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Spatial resolution estimation of LANDSAT-4 TM and MSS data

In order to verify that the LANDSAT-4 sensors are operating within specifications, it is useful to estimate the system parameters by analysis of the measured data. One parameter of particular interest is the sensor point-spread function (PSF) which determines the resolution of the system. A method of estimating the PSF is described that utilizes data obtained during scanning of ground elements having identifiable geometric and radiometric structure. These data are then processed in such a manner as to recover either the PSF itself or to estimate the parameters of an assumed functional representation of the PSF.

Mcgillem, C. D.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Software simulations of the detection of rapidly moving asteroids by a charge-coupled device

A rendezvous of an unmanned probe to an earth-approaching asteroid has been given a high priority in the planning of interplanetary missions for the 1990s. Even without a space mission, much could be learned about the history of asteroids and comet nuclei if more information were available concerning asteroids with orbits which cross or approach the orbit of earth. It is estimated that the total number of earth-crossers accessible to ground-based survey telescopes should be approximately 1000. However, in connection with the small size and rapid angular motion expected of many of these objects an average of only one object is discovered per year. Attention is given to the development of the software necessary to distinguish such rapidly moving asteroids from stars and noise in continuously scanned CCD exposures of the night sky. Model and input parameters are considered along with detector sensitivity, aspects of minimum detectable displacement, and the point-spread function of the CCD.

Mcmillan, R. S.↗
NASA NTRS1983

X-ray imaging of extended objects using nonoverlapping redundant array

A common problem associated with X-ray imaging using coded apertures is the reconstruction of low-intensity extended objects. In the decoding of such objects, the overlapping images from the multiple pinholes give rise to noise cross talk and, in many cases, also to signal cross talk. In this paper, an alternate approach is proposed based on the principle used in an earlier (Yin et al., 1980) laboratory device for the real-time viewing of X-ray objects. It is shown that with this approach, the nonoverlapping redundant array, the sidelobes in the point spread function are not eliminated but merely displaced through a suitable choice of geometry. In this manner, the sidelobes no longer contribute to the background in the vicinity of a reconstructed image, and both signal and noise cross talks are completely eliminated. It may now be possible to reconstruct extended X-ray objects in 3-D by simple optical correlation and tomographically by a computer.

Yin, L.-I.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Photometry of resolved galaxies. III - GR 8

Photometry of 84 resolved stellar images in GR 8 is presented. The numbers are derived by applying point spread function fitting techniques on digital images obtained with a three-phase Texas Instruments CCD. The resulting color-magnitude diagrams are discussed. These data are compared with theoretical stellar evolutionary tracks and similar results for other resolved galaxies.

Hoessel, J. G.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Thematic mapper radiomtric variability on ostensibly uniform agricultural scenes

The effects of the interaction of the sensor point spread function with a heterogeneous scene consisting of elements giving rise to different spectral radiant intensities cause errors in multitemporal signatures due to fractional pixel repositioning errors. In the case of a heterogeneous scene, the repositioning accuracy between acquisitions could affect the radiometric output in any band and could affect the spectral distribution of radiance between bands. Error caused by within-band and between-band variations in radiance with time could be compounded by resampling along and between scan lines during processing. The magnitude of both error sources depends on the degree of heterogeneity of the scene.

Duggin, M. J.↗
NASA NTRS1984

LANDSAT-4 image data quality analysis

Reformatting software to handle LANDSAT 5 data in quadrant format was completed and tested. The sensor two-dimensional point spread function was estimated from scene data. Budget recalculations are discussed. Two publications done under this contract are named.

Anuta, P. E.↗