Experimental Transfer Characteristics of Image Motion and Air Conditions in Aerial Photography

Abstract

Factors that impair the quality of aerial photographs include image movement, air turbulence, and haze. The effects of image movement are treated theoretically and experimentally. In the experimental study, data have been obtained by photographing a pattern on one airplane from another flying above it. The effects of the atmosphere can be separated into two types. One, due to haze, reduces contrast in a manner independent of spatial frequency; the other, attributed to air turbulence, has a spatial-frequency dependence and is treated as an apparent “aberration” of the optical system.