The Surface Coating Environmental Interaction Code (SCENIC)

The goal of this project is to develop the SCENIC model. The SCENIC model will be able to quickly determine the tradeoffs which various material coatings offer in terms of environmental reflectance signature components. A key element is a factorized model for narrow band spectral and bi-directional reflectance (BRDF) data. The factorization of the BRDF separates the angular dependence of signature calculations from the wavelength dependence, allowing rapid determination of signatures. SCENIC will have two major modules, a Signature Component Module (SCM) and an Interactive Display Module (IDM). SCENIC SCM will compute signature components for directional emissivity, solar reflectance, and non-isotropic skyshine and earthshine for input coating BRDFs. SCENIC IDM, the interactive display module will have a user interface so that targets, surface coatings, environmental conditions, bandpasses can be selected and modified. In display mode, SCENIC IDM will provide target radiance images at animation rates. Observer-target orientations will be controlled by the user. The user will be able to select individual frames for further processing, including analysis of spectral contrast signatures and bandpass signatures. In Phase I prototype SCENIC modules will be developed.