Effects of time response on the point spread function of a scanning radiometer

Scanning radiometers on satellites have a finite response time, because of the detector and the associated electronics. The radiometer measurement as it scans over a point source of radiation of unit strength is the point spread function (PSF). The time response causes a widening and skewing of the PSF. The PSF of a scanning radiometer that has well-focused optics together with time responses for the detector and electronic filter is treated in the time domain. The PSF can be expressed in terms of the system time response to a step input. For a first-order system time response, the displacement of the centroid is the product of the system time constant and the scan rate of the radiometer. The electronic filter further displaces the centroid of the PSF by the product of the scan rate and the filter time constant. Also, the width of the PSF in the scan direction will be increased because of the system time response. The minimum resolvable feature is of the order of the width of the PSF, thus the system time response limits the resolution in the scan direction that can be obtained. The analysis is illustrated by applying it to the Clouds and Earth Radiant Energy System experiment scanning radiometer.