On-Orbit Modulation Transfer Function Estimation Based on the Refined Image Kernel

To overcome the limitations of traditional on-orbit modulation function transfer (MTF) measurement methods that are heavily dependent on natural features, scenery, artificial edges, and point source targets, this paper presents an on-orbit MTF measurement method of remote sensing imager based on the refined image kernel (RIK) acquired directly from remote sensing images. First, the kernel is estimated from some remote sensing sub-images with rich texture details by using an iterative support detection (ISD) algorithm; then, it is refined by central pixel energy concentration (EC) to obtain the RIK. Secondly, the MTF curves are calculated by interpolating RIK and Fourier transform. Finally, the final MTF is the average value of MTFs at Nyquist frequency acquired by each RIK. To demonstrate the feasibility and validity of this method, the MTFs were compared to the result of the ISO12233 edge method with an error of no more than 7%. The relative error of the measured results does not exceed 5% for image signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) above 20dB. The results obtained from the on-orbit MTF measurement using remote sensing images of the Jilin-1 satellite have a maximum error of less than 2% compared with the ISO12233 edge method. These demonstrate that the method proposed in this paper supplies highly accurate and robust results and can successfully increase the efficiency of on-orbit MTF measurement, providing a reference for high-frequency monitoring of satellite on-orbit stability and their optical imaging quality.