Use of scan overlap redundancy to enhance multispectral aircraft scanner data

Two criteria were suggested for optimizing the resolution error versus signal-to-noise-ratio tradeoff. The first criterion uses equal weighting coefficients and chooses n, the number of lines averaged, so as to make the average resolution error equal to the noise error. The second criterion adjusts both the number and relative sizes of the weighting coefficients so as to minimize the total error (resolution error plus noise error). The optimum set of coefficients depends upon the geometry of the resolution element, the number of redundant scan lines, the scan line increment, and the original signal-to-noise ratio of the channel. Programs were developed to find the optimum number and relative weights of the averaging coefficients. A working definition of signal-to-noise ratio was given and used to try line averaging on a typical set of data. Line averaging was evaluated only with respect to its effect on classification accuracy.