WEATHER EFFECTS ON BACKGROUND SIGNATURES ALGORITHM DEVELOPMENT

THE INTERACTIONS BETWEEN TARGETS AND THE BACKGROUND IN BOTH THE VISUAL AND THERMAL SPECTRAL BANDS ARE AFFECTED BY SEVERAL WEATHER RELATED VARIABLES. THE DCS TE-EX MODEL WAS ORIGINALLY DEVELOPED AS A FIRST PRINCIPLES MATHEMATICAL MODEL TO PREDICT THE RADIATED TEMPERATURE OF TARGETS IN A FIELD ENVIRONMENT. THE MODEL, BECAUSE IT IS A FIRST PRINCIPLES MODEL, CAN BE USED TO PREDICT RADIATED TEMPERATURES OF BACKGROUND OBJECTS. THE REFINEMENTS REQUIRED TO EXTEND THIS MODEL WILL BE PERFORMED AND THE ALGORITHMS CODED IN FORTRAN. PARTICULAR EMPHASIS WILL BE PLACED ON THE EFFECTS OF CLOUDS ON THE THERMAL AND VISIBLE SIGNATURE AND THE INSULATION EFFECTS OF LOW LEVEL CLOUDS IN THE INFRARED. THE IMPROVED MODEL WILL BE VALIDATED BY COMPARING THE PREDICTED TEMPERATURE OF SPECIFIC OBJECTS WITH MEASURED FIELD COLLECTED DATA. THE RESULTING COMPARISONS WILL THEN BE USED TO FINALIZE THE MODEL.