# NIIRS

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{{Short description|US scale for rating image quality}}
The '''National Imagery Interpretability Rating Scale''' (NIIRS) is an American subjective scale used for rating the quality of [imagery](/source/image) acquired from various types of [imaging](/source/Optical_imaging) systems. The NIIRS defines different levels of image quality/interpretability based on the types of tasks an analyst can perform with images of a given NIIRS rating. The idea is that imagery analysts should be able to perform more demanding interpretation tasks as the quality of the imagery increases. It is published as part of the [Federation of American Scientists](/source/Federation_of_American_Scientists) Intelligence Resource Program.<ref name=niirs />

The NIIRS consists of 10 levels, from 0 (worst quality) to 9 (best quality).

Because different types of imagery support different types of interpretation tasks, individual NIIRS has been developed for four major imaging types: Visible, [Radar](/source/Radar), [Infrared](/source/Infrared), and [Multispectral](/source/Multispectral).

== NIIRS Scale ==

{| class="wikitable" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em"
! National Imagery Interpretability Rating Scale (NIIRS)<ref name=niirs>[https://fas.org/irp/imint/niirs.htm FAS - National Image Interpretability Rating Scales]</ref> !! Ground Resolved Distance (GRD)
|-
| 0 || Image can not be interpreted because of obscuration, degradation, or very poor resolution
|-
| 1 || &gt; 9.0 meters
|-
| 2 || 4.5 - 9.0 meters
|-
| 3 || 2.5 - 4.5 meters
|-
| 4 || 1.2 - 2.5 meters
|-
| 5 || 0.75 - 1.2 meters
|-
| 6 || 0.40 - 0.75 meters
|-
| 7 || 0.20 - 0.40 meters
|-
| 8 || 0.10 - 0.20 meters
|-
| 9 || &lt; 0.10 meters
|}
{{clear}}
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
https://irp.fas.org/imint/niirs.htm

== External links ==
*[https://fas.org/irp/imint/niirs_c/append.htm NIIRS Imagery examples]
*[http://www.fas.org/irp/imint/niirs.htm National Image Interpretability Rating Scales]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20170202122447/https://www.ijircce.com/upload/2016/may/47_Estimation.pdf  Estimation of NIIRS, for High Resolution Satellite Images, Using the Simplified GIQE (pdf)]
*[https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie/11398/2560587/An-exploration-of-NIIRS-image-quality-and-machine-learning/10.1117/12.2560587.short An exploration of NIIRS, image quality, and machine learning by John M. Irvine, Steven A. Israel]

Category:Imaging

{{measurement-stub}}

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [NIIRS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NIIRS) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NIIRS?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.