IMPACT OF TARGET SHADOWS ON TARGET ACQUISITION

A SHADOW MODEL IS PROPOSED THAT WILL MATE DIRECTLY WITH THE ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCE LABORATORY (ASL) TARGET ACQUISITION TACTICAL DECISION AID (TATDA). THE SHADOW'S INHERENT CONTRAST WILL BE DETERMINED FROM EQUATIONS USING THE RATIO OF SOLAR TO SKY ILLUMINATION. THE SHADOW SIZE WILL BE CHARACTERIZED BY A MINIMUM CRITICAL DIMENSION EQUIVALENT TO THE NVL MODEL METHODOLOGY ALREADY EMBEDDED IN THE TATDA SYSTEMS PERFORMANCE MODULE. THE MINIMUM CRITICAL DIMENSION WILL BE MEASURED FROM AN ACTUAL SHADOW GENERATED BY BOXLIKE REPLICAS OF THE VARIOUS TARGETS OF INTEREST. THIS PROVIDES A LEVEL OF FIDELITY CONSISTENT WITH THE REST OF THE TATDA WHILE MINIMIZING COMPUTER TIME AND SPACE. THE SHADOWS WILL BE GENERATED USING AN ENHANCED VERSION OF THE GOVERNMENT-OWNED LASERX MODEL. BOTH PRINTER ND VIDEO TERMINAL OUTPUTS WILL INCLUDE A VISUALIZATION OF THE TARGET AND ITS SHADOW. ALL THE ABOVE ATTRIBUTES ARE SUN ANGLE DEPENDENT, AS IS A TEST FOR SHADOW OCCURRENCE, WHICH DEPENDS UPON CLOUD FREE LINES OF SIGHT BETWEEN THE TARGET AND THE SUN. WHEN ADDED TO THE TATDA, THE SHADOW MODEL WILL PROVIDE THE CAPABILITY FOR PREDICTING THE PROBABILITY OF DETECTION/RECOGNITION FOR THE TARGET AND/OR ITS SHADOW.