The Effect of Simulated Aircraft Speed on Detecting and Identifying Targets from Side-Looking-Radar Imagery

摘要

Operator performance in detecting and identifying airfields, bridges, dams, and railroad yards from sidelooking radar imagery was tested. The imagery was presented to four college students on a 14 by 14 inch screen at speeds representing Mach 0.9, 1.6, 2.3 and 3.1. An average of 65% of the targets were identified. Percentage of false targets varied significantly between subjects and ranged from 42 to 64%. A slight but consistent trend toward more detections at slower speeds was not found to be statistically significant. The number of false positive responses was not significantly affected by image speed. No decrement in performance could be found as a result of extended (3 hours maximum) trial duration. (Author)