Evaluation of airborne and satellite electro-optical sensors performances by use of high-altitude clouds occurrence climatology.

Abstract : Remote sensing, surveillance applications or telecommunications require optronic sensors, onboard satellite or airborne platform. Performances limitation of these sensors may be caused by cloud presence in the field of view. To take into account cloud presence, a Monte Carlo method is used. Geometrical and optical clouds properties necessary to build the model are obtained from CALIOP measurements that enable one to deal with the optically thinnest clouds. Different viewing geometries are presented. They correspond to surveillance missions by an airborne sensor with close-to-the- horizon viewing and to optical link between an aircraft and a satellite. Results obtained are compared to a previous study and improvements reached with our new method are discussed.