Combining wave effects with radiance transport for IR scene generation

The identification and tracking of objects of interest to the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) depends upon detection, measurement/classification, and visualization of the radiation emitted by these objects. Since BMDS operation is strongly tied to imagery, the input of synthetic imagery that resembles operational scenarios is one way to test its functionality. It is crucial that such synthetic scenes not only correctly simulate the original source characteristics that emitted the radiation, but also its subsequent propagation through the atmosphere. An existing software system for synthetic IR scene generation is FLITES. While it handles molecular absorption of radiation well, its facilities for describing the wave-based phenomena of refraction, scattering and diffraction, and non-molecular extinction phenomena in the atmosphere are limited. In this Phase I research LRK Associates proposes to demonstrate how a wave-based description of radiation propagation can be coupled to FLITES to handle large-scale refraction, diffraction and scattering by atmospheric turbulence, and general extinction phenomena.