Atmospheric Environmental Metrology for Electro-Optical/Infra-Red (EO/IR) Sensor Flight Test

The Naval Air Warfare Center (NAWC) needs accurate, autonomous techniques for atmospheric correction of airborne imaging sensors to support flight testing, specifically validation of Noise-Equivalent Differential Temperature (NEDT) capabilities of Electro-Optical/Infrared (EO/IR) sensors used for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) applications. Outside of a controlled laboratory environment, temperature retrieval and measurement of NEDT are subject to the uncertainties that enter in through a number of variable terms, most of which are due to the earth"s atmosphere. The lack of timely atmospheric measurements with regard to any given test location and duration makes it a challenge to accurately characterize the composition of absorbing species along a sensor"s line of sight to a target under real-world conditions. SciTec proposes to develop and deliver a capability to perform autonomous ingest and fusion of available atmospheric profile data with that collected by a ground-based meteorological station. This capability will contain a direct implementation of MODTRAN for performing the radiative transport calculations, thus providing representations of the atmosphere that will dramatically enhance EO/IR temperature retrieval and NEDT characterization. SciTec will bring its decades of experience in ISR sensor testing and performance evaluation to deliver a precision automated process for sensor calibration and testing to the NAVAIR T & E team.