Estimates Of Visibility From High Altitude Aircraft PDF Download

The distance at which an object becomes visible depends upon such factors as brightness contrast, target size, brightness level, and atmospheric attenuation. Numerical values are selected to represent the influence of these variables under the conditions of high altitude flight. Visibility is examined under the following conditions: (a) Altitude of observer--sea level, 50,000, 100,000, and 200,000 feet. (b) Altitude of target--from sea level to approximately 300,000 feet (60 miles). (c) Background brightness conditions--from 1 to 32 footlamberts. (d) Contrast ratio between target and background--for values of 1, 5, 10, and 100. The computation of visibility is based on visual acuity data corrected for the effect of atmospheric attenuation at various altitudes. A round object with a diameter of 10 feet may be used as a representative target. (Author).