Vis/IR Atmospheric Tool (VISIRAT)

MDA Model and Simulation capabilities include Core Truth models capable of simulating all physics governing missile detection, tracking and intercept events. A key component of the simulation tools is an accurate and fast atmospheric radiation model to describe the target signal propagation through the atmosphere to the sensor. Such a model should be designed to readily interface with existing scene generation tools, for example FLITES, to create Vis/IR scenes. To support MDA operations, accurate Vis/IR scenes will need to be generated in real time. To address this crucial need, Spectral Sciences, Inc. proposes to develop the Vis/IR Atmospheric Tool (VISIRAT), a fast atmospheric effects module capable of computing lines-of-sight (LOS) radiances for use to create Vis/IR scenes in real time. VISIRAT will be based on the SAMM atmospheric radiance code. The development of VISIRAT will leverage the fast Radiative Transport (RT) modules in the latest version of SAMM: the correlated-k (cK) and the NLTE Band Model (BM) algorithms. The key enabling innovation to further accelerating the computations for scene generation is a response function approach to quickly compute the LOS radiance, based on the SAMM radiance gradient capability for simulation of atmospheric structure from temperature variations. Approved for Public Release | 16-MDA-8917 (15 November 16)