How do I manually adjust boresight alignment?

The Boresight Alignment tool was developed for use with the 1p system. SLANTRANGE 2p systems have inertial measurement units that automatically account for changes in aircraft orientation. SlantView automatically aligns the images from all sensors, but if you notice misalignment of images in a map, try using this tool to improve alignment.

Click the Sensor-aircraft boresight alignment button (second from the right on the toolbar, boxed in red), or right-click an image in the Map Window to bring up a menu with the Boresight alignment option, shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Manually adjusting boresight alignment 1

Selecting this option will prompt the display of two adjacent overlapping images in the Image Window, as shown on the right of Figure 2. To perform manual alignment, the user should select an image from the Map Window that has a feature of interest (such as the pivot seen on the right of Figure 1 and Figure 2). It may take a few tries to find two images that share the feature. Once two images with the same feature are selected and displayed in the Image Window, press the F1-F4 keys to make individual adjustments to roll, pitch, heading bias, or heading variation settings. In general, adjusting roll slides the images side to side, adjusting pitch slides the two images up and down, and adjusting heading biasand variation rotate the images relative to one another. Once a particular adjustment is selected for editing, use the scroll wheel of your mouse to increase or decrease the offset.

If the user is without a mouse or using a touch screen computer, the buttons in the top right can be used to adjust roll, pitch, heading bias, and heading variation. The outward facing arrows on top of the menu apply negative heading variation and the center facing arrows directly below apply positive heading variation. The clockwise arrow applies positive heading bias and the counter-clockwise arrow applies negative heading bias. In the directional pad at the bottom of the menu, the up and down arrows adjust pitch, and the left and right arrows adjust roll.

Applying the four types of adjustments will allow you to precisely overlap the feature of interest in the two images, as shown on the right of Figure 2. Once you are satisfied with the position of the overlapping images, click the Settings—Processing tab or the cog shaped button in the toolbar, and you will see your new degree offsets populating the boxes within the Boresight offsets, degrees: section of the Settings window shown on the left of Figure 2. Clicking Recalculate maps (circled in red) will apply the boresight offsets (boxed in red) to the data.

Figure 2: Manually adjusting boresight alignment 2