EVALUATION OF NATIONAL SAR MANUAL. PROBABILITY OF DETECTION CURVES

Since September 1978 three controlled visual detection experiments providing 966 target detection opportunities in 322 searches have been conducted by the U.S.C.G. Research and Development Center. These experiments involved 82 and 95-foot cutters, 41 and 44-foot boats, helicopters, and fixed wing aircraft searching for 16-foot boat and life raft targets. This report compares the detection performance of these search and rescue units (SRUs) with the probability of detection (POD) curves of the National Search and Rescue Manual, and recommends revised predictions based upon these results. Experiment results indicate that actual SRU detection performance falls below that of the present SAR Manual POD curves (based upon the inverse cube law of detection) and above that of the uniform random search curve. Recommendations are also provided for methods to predict POD directly from probability of detection versus lateral range curves for use with the Computer-Assisted Search Planning (CASP) model. (Author)

• Corporate Authors:

  Analysis and Technology, Incorporated

  P.O. Box 220
  North Stonington, CT  United States  06259

  United States Coast Guard

  2100 Second Street, SW
  Washington, DC  United States  20593
• Authors:
  • Edwards, NCJ
  • Mazour, T J
  • Bemont, R A
  • Osmer, S R
• Publication Date: 1980-9

Media Info

• Pagination: 60 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aircraft; Boats; Field tests; Optical detectors; Probability; Search and rescue operations; Ships; Statistical analysis
• Old TRIS Terms: Biological detection; Optical detection; Searching; Surface targets; Visual targets
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Data and Information Technology; Marine Transportation; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00329004
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Technical Information Service
• Report/Paper Numbers: USCG-D-41-80
• Contract Numbers: DOT-CG-81-79-2038
• Files: NTIS
• Created Date: May 21 2002 12:00AM