<title>Spatial distribution of radiation near the sea line in the mid-infrared region</title>

An accurate knowledge about the spatial distribution of infrared radiation near the sea line is very important as background when designing remote sensing or marine traffic surveillance systems with infrared radiation for use from the shore or ships. For this purpose, the distribution of infrared radiation from the sky and the sea surface near the sea line was measured with an IR radiometer and an IR scanner. Further, spatial distribution characteristics of infrared radiation were studied on meteorological models. As a result, it was confirmed that there is a high radiance zone of mid infrared region (8 - 13 micrometers ) near the sea line. This was also confirmed by a simulation that was conducted at the same time using meteorological models. It was also confirmed that in the middle latitudes, because the width of that high radiance zone was broadening in summer, the marine traffic surveillance system which used the mid-infrared region provided poor images with very low contrast between islands, ships, and the background so the images even disappeared.© (1994) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.