Fast Synthetic Scene Generation for Directed Energy Applications

The computational burden of simulating incoherent imaging of large extended objects, through high turbulence, using conventional wave optics simulation techniques is very significant. This simulation capability is crucial for evaluating performance of such systems as the Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL). Several innovative approaches to this problem, that will significantly reduce the computational requirements, are proposed. These approaches are based on rigorous analysis of the imaging problem with certain simplifying assumptions. The applicability of these techniques will be thoroughly evaluated with wave optics codes. A previous technique developed by tOSC, based on fast generation of point spread functions by interpolation through Rytov phase screens, has demonstrated a speed improvement of 25 over conventual techniques. These new concepts will reduce the computational time by another factor of 10.