Evaluation of influences of frequency and amplitude on image degradation caused by satellite vibrations

Satellite vibrations during exposure will lead to pixel aliasing of remote sensors, resulting in the deterioration of image quality. In this paper, we expose the problem and discuss the characteristics of satellite vibrations, and then present a pixel mixing model. The idea of mean mixing ratio (MMR) is proposed. MMR computations for different frequencies are implemented. In the mixing model, a coefficient matrix is introduced to estimate each mixed pixel. Thus, the simulation of degraded image can be performed when the vibration attitudes are known. The computation of MMR takes into consideration the influences of various frequencies and amplitudes. Therefore, the roles of these parameters played in the degradation progress are identified. Computations show that under the same vibration amplitude, the influence of vibrations fluctuates with the variation of frequency. The fluctuation becomes smaller as the frequency rises. Two kinds of vibration imaging experiments are performed: different amplitudes with the same frequency and different frequencies with the same amplitude. Results are found to be in very good agreement with the theoretical results. MMR has a better description of image quality than modulation transfer function (MTF). The influence of vibrations is determined mainly by the amplitude rather than the frequency. The influence of vibrations on image quality becomes gradually stable with the increase of frequency.