Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program

Photo Calibration Targets

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Photo Calibration Targets - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program

Aerial photo calibration targets are curious land-based two-dimensional optical artifacts used for the development of aerial photography and aircraft. They were made mostly in the 1950s and 1960s, though some apparently later than that, and some are still in use, though their history is obscure.

Most of them follow the same general form established by the Air Force and NASA (and prior to 1958, its precursor agency, NACA): a concrete or asphalt pad constructed flat on the ground, 78 feet by 53 feet, coated in a heavy black and white paint. The pattern painted on the targets is sets of parallel and perpendicular bars duplicated at 15 or so different sizes, and, sometimes, a large white square. The configuration is sometimes referred to as a 5:1 aspect Tri-bar Array, and follows a similar relative scale as a common resolution test chart known as the 1951 USAF Resolving Power Test Target. This type of test pattern is normally used as a printed chart in an optics lab, to determine the resolving power of microscopes, telescopes, cameras, and scanners. Their outsized, outdoor brethren are in the laboratory of the landscape.
The targets function like an eye chart at the optometrist, where the smallest group of bars that can be resolved marks the limit of the resolution for the optical instrument that is being used. For aerial photography, it provides a platform to test, calibrate, and focus aerial cameras traveling at different speeds and altitudes. The targets can also be used in the same way by satellites.

Photo Calibration Targets - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
Photo Calibration Targets - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
Photo Calibration Targets - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
Photo Calibration Targets - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
Photo Calibration Targets - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
Photo Calibration Targets - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
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