Method to Compute Pointing Displacement, Smear, and Jitter Covariances for Optical Payloads

TL;DR

This paper introduces a comprehensive method to evaluate optical payload performance by calculating covariances of displacement, smear, and jitter, aiding in verifying image motion requirements with improved efficiency.

Contribution

It extends previous methods to include smear and jitter, providing a more complete and efficient way to compute covariances for optical performance assessment.

Findings

Method accurately computes covariances for displacement, smear, and jitter.

Numerical examples demonstrate the method's effectiveness.

Extension improves efficiency over previous approaches.

Abstract

This paper presents a method to assess the pointing and image motion performance of optical payloads in the presence of image displacement (shift), smear, and jitter. The method assumes the motion is a stationary random process over an image exposure interval. Displacement, smear, and jitter covariances are computed from the solution to a Lyapunov differential equation. These covariances parameterize statistical image motion modulation transfer functions (MTFs), and they can be used to verify pointing and image motion MTF requirements. The method in the present paper extends a previous method to include smear, as well as displacement, and hence jitter. The approach in the present paper also leads, as a special case, to a more efficient method to compute the displacement covariance than the previous method. Numerical examples illustrate the proposed method.