d) Why is the resolution of a satellite instrument operating at thermal wavelengths lower than that of a visible instrument (use an equation to explain this).
Two objects are separated by a angular separation , then they will be resolved if the is grater than critical value .
is defined as . Where is the wavelength and D is the diameter of the aperture/lens/mirror etc.
For long distance signal, diffraction spreading is very significant. To overcome this, we can increase D. So for satellite instrument operation, one make "D" very larger resulting much smaller.
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