The National Imagery Interpretability Rating Scale (NIIRS) is a subjective scale used for rating the quality of imagery

Image

An image is an artifact, for example a two-dimensional picture, that has a similar appearance to some subject—usually a physical object or a person.-Characteristics:...

 acquired from various types of imaging

Optical imaging

Optical imaging is an imaging technique.Optics usually describes the behavior of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light used in imaging.Because light is an electromagnetic wave, similar phenomena occur in X-rays, microwaves, radio waves. Chemical imaging or molecular imaging involves inference...

 systems. The NIIRS defines different levels of image quality/interpretability based on the types of tasks an analyst can perform with images of a given NIIRS rating. The idea is that imagery analysts should be able to perform more demanding interpretation tasks as the quality of the imagery increases.

The NIIRS consists of 10 levels, from 0 (worst quality) to 9 (best quality).

Because different types of imagery support different types of interpretation tasks, individual NIIRS has been developed for four major imaging types: Visible, Radar

Radar

Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...

, Infrared

Infrared

Infrared light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength longer than that of visible light, measured from the nominal edge of visible red light at 0.74 micrometres , and extending conventionally to 300 µm...

, and Multispectral.

External links

• National Image Interpretability Rating Scales