Calculation of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of infrared detection system based on MODTRAN model

Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is an important parameter of infrared detection system. SNR of infrared detection system is determined by the target infrared radiation, atmospheric transmittance, background infrared radiation and the detector noise. The infrared radiation flux in the atmosphere is determined by the selective absorption of the gas molecules, the atmospheric environment, and the transmission distance of the radiation, etc, so the atmospheric transmittance and infrared radiance flux are intricate parameters. A radiometric model for the calculation of SNR of infrared detection system is developed and used to evaluate the effects of various parameters on signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). An atmospheric modeling tool, MODTRAN, is used to model wavelength-dependent atmospheric transmission and sky background radiance. Then a new expression of SNR is deduced. Instead of using constants such as average atmospheric transmission and average wavelength in traditional method, it uses discrete values for atmospheric transmission and sky background radiance. The integrals in general expression of SNR are converted to summations. The accuracy of SNR obtained from the new method can be improved. By adopting atmospheric condition of the 1976 US standard, no clouds urban aerosols, fall-winter aerosol profiles, the typical spectrum characters of sky background radiance and transmittance are computed by MODTRON. Then the operating ranges corresponding to the threshold quantity of SNR are calculated with the new method. The calculated operating ranges are more close to the measured operating range than those calculated with the traditional method.