Development of an Aero-Optical Test Simulator Code

This is a proposal to develop an aero-optical test simulator code. The code will contain three elements, 1)an algorithm for producing physically plausible aero-optical properties and bounds on properties characterizing flows of interest, 2)an algorithmfor converting these into aero-optical features of a flow described by a set of time varying, random, phase masks, and 3) a code that will integrate these and propagate a wavefront through a typical test scenario with an output similar to that provided bythe test diagnostics. This code will allow a user to simulate and run aero-optical tests that will be useful for test planning and data interpretation. The Phase I program will demonstrate the feasibility of key components an aero-optics test bed to bedeveloped during a Phase II effort that can be used to produce computational aero-optics simulations of complex aero-optic phenomena.The proposed aero-optic computational simulation system could be used by commercial developers of advanced seekers toreduce the amount of expensive test time currently needed to determine the effect of aero-optic phenomena in such areas as point-to-point optical communications and ground-based telescope image improvement.