ILARTS Imaging Sensor for Day/Night Aircraft Approach and Landing

The television cameras utilized by aircraft carrier Landing Signal Officers need to provide good imagery, day and night, under conditions where the aircraft is illuminated by ambient light but the aircraft's bright landing lights are on, resulting gin intra-scene dynamic range of ~10E6. These TV cameras provide the Landing Signal Officer with glide-slope and lineup information, and also view deck operations, approaches, and launches. For this application, vital to aircraft carrier operations, there is a real need to develop a television image sensor and camera system to replace the Image Isocon based cameras which are no longer manufactured. The television image sensor technology affording the necessary dynamic range are the Charge Coupled Devices ("CCDs"). Thier high quantum efficiency and low readout noise make CCDs competitive at low illumination levels with intensified image sensors and provide superior performance at moderate and high light levels. AS discussed in this proposal, CCD technology appears to afford the best prospect for matching or exceeding Image Isocoan performance in the demanding ILARTS application. This will be investigated further in Phase I.