Angular resolution

Angular resolution describes the ability of any image-forming device

such as an optical or radio telescope, a microscope, a camera, or an eye,
to distinguish small details of an object, thereby making it a major
determinant of image resolution. It is used in optics applied to light
waves, in antenna theory applied to radio waves, and in acoustics applied
to sound waves. The colloquial use of the term "resolution" sometimes
causes confusion; when an optical system is said to have a high resolution
or high angular resolution, it means that the perceived distance, or actual
angular distance, between resolved neighboring objects is small. The
value that quantifies this property, θ, which is given by the Rayleigh
criterion, is low for a system with a high resolution. The closely related
term spatial resolution refers to the precision of a measurement with
respect to space, which is directly connected to angular resolution in
imaging instruments. The Rayleigh criterion shows that the minimum
angular spread that can be resolved by an image forming system is limited
by diffraction to the ratio of the wavelength of the waves to the aperture
width. For this reason, high resolution imaging systems such as
astronomical telescopes, long distance telephoto camera lenses and radio
telescopes have large apertures.

Definition of terms
Resolving power is the ability of an imaging device to separate (i.e., to see
as distinct) points of an object that are located at a small angular distance A series of images representing the
or it is the power of an optical instrument to separate far away objects, magnification of M87* with an
that are close together, into individual images. The term resolution or angular size of some
minimum resolvable distance is the minimum distance between microarcseconds, comparable to
distinguishable objects in an image, although the term is loosely used by viewing a tennis ball on the Moon
many users of microscopes and telescopes to describe resolving power. (magnification from top left corner
As explained below, diffraction-limited resolution is defined by the counter−clockwise to the top right
Rayleigh criterion as the angular separation of two point sources when corner).
the maximum of each source lies in the first minimum of the diffraction
pattern (Airy disk) of the other. In scientific analysis, in general, the term
"resolution" is used to describe the precision with which any instrument measures and records (in an image or
spectrum) any variable in the specimen or sample under study.

The Rayleigh criterion

The imaging system's resolution can be limited either by aberration or by diffraction causing blurring of the
image. These two phenomena have different origins and are unrelated. Aberrations can be explained by
geometrical optics and can in principle be solved by increasing the optical quality of the system. On the other
hand, diffraction comes from the wave nature of light and is determined by the finite aperture of the optical
elements. The lens' circular aperture is analogous to a two-dimensional version of the single-slit experiment. Light
passing through the lens interferes with itself creating a ring-shape diffraction pattern, known as the Airy pattern,
if the wavefront of the transmitted light is taken to be spherical or plane over the exit aperture.
The interplay between diffraction and aberration can be characterised by
the point spread function (PSF). The narrower the aperture of a lens the
more likely the PSF is dominated by diffraction. In that case, the angular
resolution of an optical system can be estimated (from the diameter of the
aperture and the wavelength of the light) by the Rayleigh criterion
defined by Lord Rayleigh: two point sources are regarded as just resolved
when the principal diffraction maximum (center) of the Airy disk of one
image coincides with the first minimum of the Airy disk of the other,[1][2]
as shown in the accompanying photos. (In the bottom photo on the right
that shows the Rayleigh criterion limit, the central maximum of one point
source might look as though it lies outside the first minimum of the other,
but examination with a ruler verifies that the two do intersect.) If the
distance is greater, the two points are well resolved and if it is smaller,
they are regarded as not resolved. Rayleigh defended this criterion on
sources of equal strength.[2]

Considering diffraction through a circular aperture, this translates into:

Airy diffraction patterns generated by

light from two point sources passing
through a circular aperture, such as
where θ is the angular resolution (radians), λ is the wavelength of light, the pupil of the eye. Points far apart
and D is the diameter of the lens' aperture. The factor 1.22 is derived from (top) or meeting the Rayleigh
a calculation of the position of the first dark circular ring surrounding the criterion (middle) can be
central Airy disc of the diffraction pattern. This number is more precisely distinguished. Points closer than the
1.21966989... (OEIS: A245461), the first zero of the order-one Bessel Rayleigh criterion (bottom) are
function of the first kind divided by π. difficult to distinguish.

The formal Rayleigh criterion is close to the empirical resolution limit

found earlier by the English astronomer W. R. Dawes, who tested human observers on close binary stars of equal
brightness. The result, θ = 4.56/D, with D in inches and θ in arcseconds, is slightly narrower than calculated with
the Rayleigh criterion. A calculation using Airy discs as point spread function shows that at Dawes' limit there is a
5% dip between the two maxima, whereas at Rayleigh's criterion there is a 26.3% dip.[3] Modern image
processing techniques including deconvolution of the point spread function allow resolution of binaries with even
less angular separation.

Using a small-angle approximation, the angular resolution may be converted into a spatial resolution, Δ ℓ , by
multiplication of the angle (in radians) with the distance to the object. For a microscope, that distance is close to
the focal length f of the objective. For this case, the Rayleigh criterion reads:

This is the radius, in the imaging plane, of the smallest spot to which a collimated beam of light can be focused,
which also corresponds to the size of smallest object that the lens can resolve.[4] The size is proportional to
wavelength, λ, and thus, for example, blue light can be focused to a smaller spot than red light. If the lens is
focusing a beam of light with a finite extent (e.g., a laser beam), the value of D corresponds to the diameter of the
light beam, not the lens.[Note 1] Since the spatial resolution is inversely proportional to D, this leads to the slightly
surprising result that a wide beam of light may be focused to a smaller spot than a narrow one. This result is
related to the Fourier properties of a lens.

A similar result holds for a small sensor imaging a subject at infinity: The angular resolution can be converted to a
spatial resolution on the sensor by using f as the distance to the image sensor; this relates the spatial resolution of
the image to the f-number, f/#:
 .

Since this is the radius of the Airy disk, the resolution is better estimated by the diameter,

Specific cases

Single telescope

Point-like sources separated by an angle smaller than the angular

resolution cannot be resolved. A single optical telescope may have an
angular resolution less than one arcsecond, but astronomical seeing and
other atmospheric effects make attaining this very hard.

The angular resolution R of a telescope can usually be approximated by

where λ is the wavelength of the observed radiation, and D is the

diameter of the telescope's objective. The resulting R is in radians. For
example, in the case of yellow light with a wavelength of 580 nm, for a
resolution of 0.1 arc second, we need D=1.2 m. Sources larger than the
angular resolution are called extended sources or diffuse sources, and
smaller sources are called point sources.

This formula, for light with a wavelength of about 562 nm, is also called
the Dawes' limit. Log-log plot of aperture diameter vs
angular resolution at the diffraction
limit for various light wavelengths
Telescope array
compared with various astronomical
instruments. For example, the blue
The highest angular resolutions for telescopes can be achieved by arrays
star shows that the Hubble Space
of telescopes called astronomical interferometers: These instruments can
Telescope is almost diffraction-
achieve angular resolutions of 0.001 arcsecond at optical wavelengths,
limited in the visible spectrum at 0.1
and much higher resolutions at x-ray wavelengths. In order to perform arcsecs, whereas the red circle
aperture synthesis imaging, a large number of telescopes are required laid shows that the human eye should
out in a 2-dimensional arrangement with a dimensional precision better have a resolving power of 20 arcsecs
than a fraction (0.25x) of the required image resolution. in theory, though normally only 60
arcsecs.
The angular resolution R of an interferometer array can usually be
approximated by

where λ is the wavelength of the observed radiation, and B is the length of the maximum physical separation of
the telescopes in the array, called the baseline. The resulting R is in radians. Sources larger than the angular
resolution are called extended sources or diffuse sources, and smaller sources are called point sources.
For example, in order to form an image in yellow light with a wavelength of 580 nm, for a resolution of 1 milli-
arcsecond, we need telescopes laid out in an array that is 120 m × 120 m with a dimensional precision better than
145 nm.

Microscope

The resolution R (here measured as a distance, not to be confused with the angular resolution of a previous
subsection) depends on the angular aperture :[5]

where .

Here NA is the numerical aperture, is half the included angle of the lens, which depends on the diameter of
the lens and its focal length, is the refractive index of the medium between the lens and the specimen, and is
the wavelength of light illuminating or emanating from (in the case of fluorescence microscopy) the sample.

It follows that the NAs of both the objective and the condenser should be as high as possible for maximum
resolution. In the case that both NAs are the same, the equation may be reduced to:

The practical limit for is about 70°. In a dry objective or condenser, this gives a maximum NA of 0.95. In a
high-resolution oil immersion lens, the maximum NA is typically 1.45, when using immersion oil with a refractive
index of 1.52. Due to these limitations, the resolution limit of a light microscope using visible light is about
200 nm. Given that the shortest wavelength of visible light is violet ( ),

which is near 200 nm.

Oil immersion objectives can have practical difficulties due to their shallow depth of field and extremely short
working distance, which calls for the use of very thin (0.17 mm) cover slips, or, in an inverted microscope, thin
glass-bottomed Petri dishes.
However, resolution below this theoretical limit can be achieved using super-resolution microscopy. These
include optical near-fields (Near-field scanning optical microscope) or a diffraction technique called 4Pi STED
microscopy. Objects as small as 30 nm have been resolved with both techniques.[6][7] In addition to this
Photoactivated localization microscopy can resolve structures of that size, but is also able to give information in z-
direction (3D).

List of telescopes and arrays by angular resolution

Angular
resolution
Name Image Wavelength Type Site Year
(arc
seconds)

very long
Global mm-VLBI
baseline a range of
Array (successor to
0.000012 radio (at interferometry locations on
the Coordinated 2002 -
(12 μas) 1.3 cm) array of Earth and in
Millimeter VLBI
Array)
different radio space[8]
telescopes
Paranal
largest optical
light (1-2 Observatory,
Very Large 0.001 (1 array of 4 2002/2010
Antofagasta
Telescope/PIONIER mas) micrometre)[9] reflecting -
Region,
telescopes
Chile

Hubble Space light (near space

0.04 Earth orbit 1990 -
Telescope 500 nm)[10] telescope

James Webb infrared (at space Sun–Earth

0.1[11] 2022 -
Space Telescope 2000 nm)[12] telescope L2

See also
Angular diameter
Beam width
Dawes limit
Diffraction-limited system
Ground sample distance
Image resolution
Optical resolution
Sparrow's resolution limit
Visual acuity

Notes
1. In the case of laser beams, a Gaussian Optics analysis is more appropriate than the Rayleigh
criterion, and may reveal a smaller diffraction-limited spot size than that indicated by the formula
above.

References
1. Born, M.; Wolf, E. (1999). Principles of Optics. Cambridge University Press. p. 461 (https://archive.
 org/details/principlesoptics00born/page/n496). ISBN 0-521-64222-1.
2. Lord Rayleigh, F.R.S. (1879). "Investigations in optics, with special reference to the spectroscope"
(https://zenodo.org/record/1431143). Philosophical Magazine. 5. 8 (49): 261–274.
doi:10.1080/14786447908639684 (https://doi.org/10.1080%2F14786447908639684).
3. Michalet, X. (2006). "Using photon statistics to boost microscopy resolution" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.
nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1458746). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 103 (13):
4797–4798. Bibcode:2006PNAS..103.4797M (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006PNAS..103.
4797M). doi:10.1073/pnas.0600808103 (https://doi.org/10.1073%2Fpnas.0600808103).
PMC 1458746 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1458746). PMID 16549771 (https://
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16549771).
4. "Diffraction: Fraunhofer Diffraction at a Circular Aperture" (https://web.archive.org/web/201107082
14325/http://www.cvimellesgriot.com/products/Documents/TechnicalGuide/fundamental-Optics.pd
f) (PDF). Melles Griot Optics Guide. Melles Griot. 2002. Archived from the original (https://www.cvi
mellesgriot.com/products/Documents/TechnicalGuide/fundamental-Optics.pdf) (PDF) on 2011-07-
08. Retrieved 2011-07-04.
5. Davidson, M. W. "Resolution" (https://www.microscopyu.com/microscopy-basics/resolution).
Nikon’s MicroscopyU. Nikon. Retrieved 2017-02-01.
6. Pohl, D. W.; Denk, W.; Lanz, M. (1984). "Optical stethoscopy: Image recording with resolution
λ/20". Applied Physics Letters. 44 (7): 651. Bibcode:1984ApPhL..44..651P (https://ui.adsabs.harv
ard.edu/abs/1984ApPhL..44..651P). doi:10.1063/1.94865 (https://doi.org/10.1063%2F1.94865).
7. Dyba, M. "4Pi-STED-Microscopy..." (http://www.mpibpc.mpg.de/groups/hell/4Pi-STED.htm) Max
Planck Society, Department of NanoBiophotonics. Retrieved 2017-02-01.
8. "Images at the Highest Angular Resolution in Astronomy" (https://www.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de/pressrel
eases/2022/2). Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy. 2022-05-13. Retrieved 2022-09-26.
9. de Zeeuw, Tim (2017). "Reaching New Heights in Astronomy - ESO Long Term Perspectives".
The Messenger. 166: 2. arXiv:1701.01249 (https://arxiv.org/abs/1701.01249).
10. "Hubble Space Telescope" (https://www.nasa.gov/missions/highlights/webcasts/shuttle/sts109/hu
bble-qa.html#:~:text=In%20visible%20light%20(at%20wavelengths,by%20about%2040%20arc%
20seconds.). NASA. 2007-04-09. Retrieved 2022-09-27.
11. Dalcanton, Julianne; Seager, Sara; Aigrain, Suzanne; Battel, Steve; Brandt, Niel; Conroy, Charlie;
Feinberg, Lee; Gezari, Suvi; Guyon, Olivier; Harris, Walt; Hirata, Chris; Mather, John; Postman,
Marc; Redding, Dave; Schiminovich, David; Stahl, H. Philip; Tumlinson, Jason (2015). "From
Cosmic Birth to Living Earths: The Future of UVOIR Space Astronomy". arXiv:1507.04779 (https://
arxiv.org/abs/1507.04779) [astro-ph.IM (https://arxiv.org/archive/astro-ph.IM)].
12. "FAQ Full General Public Webb Telescope/NASA" (https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/content/about/faqs/f
aq.html). jwst.nasa.gov. 2002-09-10. Retrieved 2022-09-27.

External links
"Concepts and Formulas in Microscopy: Resolution" (http://www.microscopyu.com/articles/formul
as/formulasresolution.html) by Michael W. Davidson, Nikon MicroscopyU (website).

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