IMAGING THROUGH THE ATMOSPHERE - PRACTICAL INSTRUMENTATION-BASED THEORY AND VERIFICATION OF AEROSOL MODULATION TRANSFER-FUNCTION - REPLY TOCOMMENT

New exact numerical calculations as well as exact calculations in J. O pt. Sec. Am. A 10, 172 (1993) indicate that the approximations in the Comment in J. Opt. Sec. Am. A 11, 1175 (1994) are based on faulty perc eptions of basic scattering phenomena and on a misreading of our paper . The Comment does not sufficiently consider effects of instrumentatio n. Whereas our model refers to the aerosol modulation transfer functio n (MTF) in the image plane, the values of maximum angles for scattered (theta(s)) and unscattered (theta(0)) light used in the Comment refer to the optics plane. The Comment does not consider the fact that dyna mic range limits (theta(s)) in the image, whereas limited spatial-freq uency bandwidth broadens theta(0) in the image, each by orders of magn itude. Therefore the Comment's conclusion contradicts experimental res ults obtained by numerous researchers. The Comment's conclusion that a erosol MTF is insignificant is based on that author's own experiments, in which clear weather and haze atmospheric MTF (composed of turbulen ce and aerosol MTF's) could not be measured, the reason being insuffic ient equipment resolution, rather than insignificant turbulence or aer osol MTF. Furthermore, the claim in our original paper that aerosol MT F is extremely significant has since been supported by many different types of experiments that included short and long exposures, thermal i maging, and image restoration based on atmospheric MTF, including a hi ghly significant practical, uniquely shaped, aerosol MTF.