IKONOS spatial resolution and image interpretability characterization

Five individual projects characterized the spatial performance of the IKONOS commercial imaging sensor. The result was determination of the spatial image quality of IKONOS data products in terms of the National Imagery Interpretability Rating Scale (NIIRS), the system Modulation Transfer Function (MTF), the system stability over its first year of operation, the characteristics of the Space Imaging MTF Compensation (MTFC) procedure, and the application-specific capabilities of IKONOS imagery. Both panchromatic and multispectral imagery were evaluated. Major conclusions of this work are that the system was stable in imaging performance during the first year of operation, that its MTF meets the specification for the NASA Scientific Data Purchase program, that the initial MTFC processing appears to be transposed in the in-track and the cross-track directions, that the MTFC results in a noise amplification of 2× to 4× in addition to sharpening the imagery, and that IKONOS panchromatic imagery achieves an average NIIRS rating of 4.5.