The immediate impact of remote sensing upon detection will be to assist search planners determining the optimum deployment of resources by providing environmental information which is used to estimate the performance of detection sensors. 3 represents the cube of the range between the observer and the target. The key factors in estimating ship motion are wave height, sea spectra, wave direction, stability factors such as distribution of weights on a vessel and the ship's hull form, and ship's motion relative to the waves. A study, managed by the Transportation Development Centre, is being conducted to evaluate the impact of ship's motion on vigilance and detection. The figure below is from the 1990 detection trials, and shows the lateral range curve where the y axis represents the probability of detection and the x axis represents the lateral range of the target.
Lateral range is the same as the closest point of approach.
If the searcher and the target maintain their courses and speeds, the relative motion of the two will result in a point at which the distance between them is at a minimum. This point is called the closest point of approach or lateral range. Survival Survival depends on a large number of factors, many of which are unknown to the search planner. For example, if a person is wearing a correctly donned survival suit, the person will survive longer than someone who is not wearing a survival suit, or someone who has not put the suit on properly. Personal communications with search and rescue experts in the United Kingdom also indicates that wave height also plays an important role in survival.