MATHEMATICAL STUDY OF BACKGROUND 'NOISE'
Abstract
In designing guidance or detection systems, an important aid towards optimal or quasi-optimal design is a knowledge of the properties of the background in which the system must work. The present paper is concerned with the effect of background gradients on infrared systems that use a rotating reticle in the focal plane of a scanning system as an aid in discriminating against background signals in favor of desired or target signals. The background radiation is regarded here as a two-dimensional random function of space or angular variables. The scanning and rotating action may be said to convert the background or input random process or 'noise' into a new noise process at the output side of the reticle. If this output noise can be decribed in terms of an output correlation function or power spectrum, it becomes possible, in a limited sense, to calculate the effect of processing by photoconductive cells, amplifiers and the like. Thus, the system analysis stage of design may be facilitated and possibly a little progress made toward more sophisticated solutions of the design synthesis problem.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 22, 1957
- Accession Number
- AD0608021
Entities
People
- Philip R. Karr
Organizations
- TRW Inc.