Extraction of Modulation Transfer Function by using Simulated Satellite Images

Imaging satellite performance parameters, such as modulation transfer function (MTF) could be measured and analyzed using simulated images. We confirmed validity of our MTF extraction algorithms by comparing theoretical input with sine wave star and slanted edge case results. Mean squared error (MSE) for the slanted edge MTF extraction algorithm was 0.013% and for the sine wave star case it was even less. We performed Wiener filter image restoration to the degraded images and then extracted MTF values from these restored images. The agreement between the theoretical MTF and extracted ones remains very good for the restored images. Finally, we considered significance of various factors on accurate determination of MTF curves. Dependence on i) slanted edge angle ii) number of Time Delay Integration (TDI) steps, iii) pixel pitch size, iv) restoration level is expected to be low but results are relatively sensitive to the i) ROI selection, ii) dark noise, iii) oversampling number.