Field and Modeling Test Bed for Plume Detection through Sunlit Clouds

Early Launch Detection and Tracking (ELDT) is emerging as a key component of US ballistic missile defense strategy. The complications of sunlit cloud cover and long slant path viewing make the problem extremely challenging and have thus far hindered the validation of proposed approaches. Spectral Sciences, Inc. (SSI), in collaboration with SciTec, Inc., proposes to develop a validated simulation and field test bed for rigorous evaluation of ELDT algorithm and sensor concepts. In Phase I, a missile-plume-under-cloud capability was demonstrated with SSI’s MCScene scene simulation code. Feasibility calculations were performed for evaluating a novel VIS/SWIR multispectral, real-time algorithm and sensor concept for detection of missiles under sunlit clouds. In Phase II, MCScene will be enhanced with additional ELDT phenomenology, including 3D clouds and plumes, and dynamic scene elements. A novel acceleration algorithm will be developed for MCScene to facilitate the transition from an expert-user specialty code to a broad-based non-expert user workhorse simulation tool. A threat scene database containing detailed and realistic full spectrum (visible to LWIR) scene simulations will be generated and organized into the test bed, and the modeling methodology will be validated through analysis of ELDT measurement data.