A novel algorithm and hardware implementation for correcting sensor non-uniformities in infrared focal plane array based staring system

The spatial and temporal non-uniformities in infrared focal plane array (IRFPA) result a slowly varying pattern on the image thereby, degrading the resolving capabilities of thermal imaging system considerably. A method based upon the variation of the integration time and its implementation for calibrating the sensor non-uniformities is presented. The results are compared with the black body based calibration method. This approach results the same residual non-uniformities as obtained using black body method. However, this approach offers the much required field upgradability, making the system more robust giving same performance under all environmental conditions.