Target Acquisition and Analysis Training System: An Exploratory Investigation of Vehicle Identification Performance with Black Hot and White Hot Thermal Images

This research note reports on research whose major objectives to determine 1 how overall identification performance differs between slides of black hot and white thermal vehicle images, and 2 how identification performance is affected by whether the images shown at various ranges are black hot or white hot. The primary conclusions drawn from the data analyses included these The black hot thermal polarity setting is preferred for target identification by the majority of soldiers who are competent in vehicle recognition and identification using thermal sights. Although an average of absolute differences between performance using black hot and white hot images favored the use of black hot images across all ranges, these results are inconclusive. Further research is suggested. Identification performance using thermal images degrades sharply at intermediate 1300-1700 meter and far 1800- 2300 meter ranges. Keywords Combat vehicles, Thermal imagery, Target acquisition.