EFFECTS OF ABSORPTION ON IMAGE QUALITY THROUGH A PARTICULATE MEDIUM

A new approach to studying the effects of absorption by aerosols and m olecular particulates of electromagnetic radiation is presented. In co ntradiction to the conventional concept that absorption gives rise to constant attenuation, it is shown here that the particulate-absorbed i rradiance is spatial frequency dependent. An analytically corrected mo del of the aerosol modulation transfer function and the aerosol mutual coherence function is presented. An important application of this mod el is in thermal imaging, in which particulate-absorption effects are very significant.