Image measurement errors and missile performance

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to estimate the errors in the measurement of lengths of missiles or satellite launch vehicles from digital images available in the public domain when the scale or the pixel sizes of the images are not known. Under the International Strategic and Security Studies Programme (ISSP) of the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), assessments of China’s Ballistic and Cruise missiles as well as Pakistan’s missiles have been made earlier. In those studies the dimensions of missiles were measured using ENVI 3.5 image processing software. Using these measured dimensions the propellant mass and the lift off mass were estimated using available engineering data and knowledge. This derived data set from the measurements was used to run typical trajectory profiles to estimate the ranges of the missiles.