METHOD FOR ENHANCING AIR-TO-GROUND TARGET DETECTION, ACQUISITION AND TERMINAL GUIDANCE AND AN IMAGE CORRELATION SYSTEM

A method for enhancing air to ground target detection, acquisition and terminal guidance which includes providing a reference image of a target scene, detecting contrast boundaries, tracing edges along the edge pixels, storing in computer memory endpoints of fitted straight line segments, providing a video image of the target scene, identifying contrast boundaries, scaling and transforming the template, correlating it with the edges of the video image, and converting the target designation in the reference image to the sensor image. A multispectral gradient based image correlation system including a template containing information as to edges, a video image of a target processed by a gradient operator, means for correlating the template and the image edge-to-edge, a means for transferring the target from the template to the image, that provides an enhanced video image with the target within it.