Polarization Modeling of Targets & Environmental Backgrounds

"PRA will incorporate polarization signature modeling capability into their 3D Genesis code. Research will also investigate incorporating terrestrial and atmospheric polarization effects into the model. This will rely on PRA's extensive experience inprograms such as SSGM. PRA will exercise and extend theoretical models to simulate emission of scattering polarization data where needed. A Fresnel model incorporating surface roughness and index of refraction will be employed. These data and existingmaterial databases will be used to model the polarization signatures of objects. The goal is to have 3D Genesis running as a polarization target signature code by the end of Phase 1. Future extensions will include implementing the background polarizationmodeling. Phase 2 will involve comparisons of simulations to field measurements and exploitation of the polarization signatures for object identification, orientation and discrimination problems. For known object shapes, the polarization signaturesdetermine orientation. For unknown objects, polarization signatures can help in identification of the object shape by referencing known signatures for objects such as cones, cylinders, spheres, or composite objects formed by the basic shapes. Timevarying polarization signatures can greatly impact capability to separate targets from natural backgrounds and in discrimination of threat objects from those that are benign. The capability to mode