System performance considerations for spaceborne high-resolution mapping

ABSTRACT: High resolution mapping systems follow the trend to smaller ground sample distances (GSD) making use of the best technology available at the given time. From the 80 m GSD of ERTS in 1972, the GSD now approached 1 m and even less for civil applications. Mass and power consumption of spacecrafts and imaging instruments follow similar trends in conjunction with the immense improvements in very divers fields of technology The talk gives a MTF based metrics and analytical method to assess the boundary conditions for high resolution optical imaging. In this context the paper deals with such important parameters like spatial resolution, radiometry, pointing accuracy and stability. It is shown that the imagers as well as the spacecraft bus need to follow certain rules to allow high resolution imaging aboard of small satellites