3D Lidar Simulation Model for Development and Validation of Biological and Chemical Agent Detection and Identification Algorithms

Not Available "There is a diversity of active and passive sensors and associated processing algorithms proposed and under development for remote detection of chemical and biological agents. It would be highly beneficial to have a consistent and accurate means forcomparing, evaluating, and projecting system and algorithm performance over the full range of anticipated operational conditions. For many practical reasons, including cost, time, and the release of hazardous materials, field measurements alone cannotfulfill this need. However, field measurements supplemented with scene/sensor simulations offer a robust solution to this problem. Spectral Sciences, Inc. in collaboration with the Los Alamos National Laboratory, proposes the development and validation ofa state-of-the-art physics-based scene/sensor simulation model targeted at active and passive sensors and algorithms for chemical and biological agent detection. The model will be an extension to an existing simulation package developed by SSI forhyperspectral and multispectral imaging sensors. It would be validated against existing field measurements to demonstrate its ability to realistically represent real world situations. This would enable reliable simulation-based extrapolation of limitedfield data to other environmental and background/clutter conditions, different biological and chemical agents, viewing platforms, and sensor wavelengths types. The commercial product will be a LIDAR scene simulation software package for use by researchersfor development of vapor/aerosol detection algorithms as well as by instrument designers."