End-to-End Image Simulator for Optical Imaging Systems: Equations and Simulation Examples

Table 5

Image quality parameters related to the simulations of Figure 7 with low illumination radiance (Case B in Table 4). The diffraction limit represents the Airy radius (𝜆=1 𝜇m, 𝐻=620 Km) of Rayleigh criterion. Case (b) is better respect to case (d) because SNR*MTF is related to a signal with lower Nyquist period.

Case	GSD	Pupil diameter	On ground diffraction limit	Nyquist; period	SNR*; MTFNyquist	Image quality evaluation
(a)	2.5 m	150 mm	5.0 m	5 m	1	Low
(b)	2.5 m	300 mm	2.5 m	5 m	5.8	High
(c)	3.5 m	150 mm	5.0 m	7 m	4.6	Sufficient
(d)	5.0 m	150 mm	5.0 m	10 m	11	Sufficient