APPLICATIONS OF MULTISPECTRAL PHOTOGRAPHY USING MKP-6 
AND _MSP=4 
  
K, HERDA, JENOPTIK JENA GmbH, DDR-69 Jena 
Introduction 
The two main techniques in present use of sensing multi- 
Spectral information for thematio compilation are scanning 
with detector arrays or photography from air- or space- 
borne platforms, Compilation is preferably digital, using 
large-capacity computer systems 4 , The advantages of 
fast processing of large quantities of information are 
obvious, but visual and photogrammetrio compilation 
methods suggest themselves as well especially in case 
of photography. These methods cannot compete with the 
high capacity of electronic data processing, but this is 
balanced by the advantages of more accurate location of 
objects and more exact interpretation of their multi- 
spectral properties, 
The MKF-6 Multispectral Camera (Fig. 1) for photography 
with six different film/filter combinations and the 
MSP-4 Multispectral Projector (Fig. 2) for four such 
combinations are designed to yield high-precision imagery 
applicable in most varied fields 6 . This is indicated 
by the main technical parameters (see Figs. | and 2) and 
proved by first applications results that have become 
available so far. These results allow seven interesting 
conclusions to be derived for practical work. 
  
1. Given the film/filter combinations used, photoimages 
taken from space permit to recognize detail as small as 
10m x 10 m on the ground, so that detail information 
can be collected along with an overview of large-area 
patterns. 
With a flying height of 265 km (Soyuz 22) and a photoscale 
of about 1:2,000,000, a detail visibility of 10 m corre- 
sponds to a resolving power of 100 1/mm in the photoplane 
under practical conditions, Thus, one 56 mm x 80 mm frame 
taken with the MKF~6 contains a minimum information quan- 
tity Imin of 2 x 108 bits. This minimum is based on the 
initial assumption that each detail shown at least appears 
in one of two tones, such as black or white. Landsat fmaden 
reproduce a minimum information quantity of about 5 x 10 
bits, resolving ground details down to about 75 m and 
covering an area of 164 km x 185 km 1 . Their information 
content is, thus, 40 times less than that of MKF-6 imagery. 
As a practical example, a 50x sectional enlargement was 
made from MKF-6 satellite images of several spectral ranges, 
at a scale of 1 : 40,000 (Fig. 3). The images were combined 
for optimum interpretation on the MSP-4 Projector 2. 
The section shows the Darss peninsula at the GDR's Baltic