Digital Schlieren Photography

The Holloman High Speed Test Track (HHSTT) currently uses photographic film based image motion compensation techniques to create Focusing Schlieren photos of high speed rocket sleds. Since film processing and film manufacturing continue to be phased out, this capability needs to be replaced by digital cameras. Current state-of-the-art digital cameras are sufficient to replace HHSTT framing cameras, but the Schlieren cameras have several requirements that will require new developments. To obtain Schlieren photography with 0.05 inch spatial resolution a 3000x1 pixel array will be required. To obtain this resolution, on a Mach 10 (11,000 ft/sec) rocket sled, the exposure time must be < ~400 ns, resulting in a data acquisition rate of ~8 gigapixels per second. The program objective is to develop a Digital Schlieren Camera System to replace film-based techniques to optically record high resolution images of rocket sleds and their test articles at velocities up to 11,000 feet per second. The Phase II objective is to design, build, a prototype ultra-high speed digital focusing Schlieren camera system and test at the HHSTT.