Evaluation of Range Estimation Performance of FLIR with Field Requirements Criteria

Abstract

Thermal imaging performance depends on many variables, ranging from the properties of the imaged object to atmospheric transmittance and system parameters. After clarification of the functional needs in system design or procurement, system parameters of the design that can meet these needs should be determined. Diagnosis/recognition from a distance is one of the foremost of these needs. The following briefly introduces the Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) systems, followed by explanations for calculating the theoretical diagnostic range. After the theoretical information, sample systems are given, and high-performance FLIR systems are presented. To accurately analyze, measure and predict the performance of FLIR systems, a model should calculate summary performance measures of the system in the form of Minimum Resolvable Temperature (MRT) and Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) between a target and its background and estimate range for a given scenario electro-optical required for the performance evaluation of the system. The accuracy of these calculations will ultimately determine the accuracy of the model by which the performance of the FLIR system is evaluated.