DEFECTIVE PIXEL CORRECTION AND RESTORATION IN STARING REMOTE SENSOR FOCAL PLANE ARRAYS

A staring sensor can be used to obtain sets of images that describe the various features of its intended target.It is its focal plane array (FPA), or the grid of individual sensing elements, that captures the photometric data within the imaging system.In many cases, some of the individual detectors become corrupted, causing the corresponding image pixels to exhibit characteristics different from those of the rest of the image.These defective pixel intensities can be abnormally noisy or completely saturated, having serious consequences on image quality and adversely affecting automated calculations that are performed on the images.This thesis presents the problems associated with defective pixels and discusses how these pixels can be compensated in a remote FPA non-imaging application requiring very strict photometric accuracy.It provides improved alternatives for defective pixel correction and the numerical analysis regarding the algorithms' applicability under various non-imaging circumstances.F33600-01-D01017.