COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE INFORMATION-CONTENT OF VISUAL AND THERMAL-VISION OBSERVATIONAL METHODS UNDER THE CONDITIONS OF THE THERMAL BALANCE OF THE EARTH .1. VISION

This paper shows that the limiting attainable parameters of optoelectr onic devices (the dynamic range, the noise-equivalent temperature diff erence, etc.), restricted by the noise of the perceived photon flux or by other properties of the object of observation, are expressed in th e form of a product of an ''image potential,'' per total angle of view , unit area of the object, and unit observation time times a universal efficiency coefficient of the optoelectronic device. The information potential of a visible image, corresponding to the mean illuminance of vertical objects on the daylight hemisphere of the earth, is close to 10(8) cm(-1) sec(-1/2).