INFRARED BACKGROUND/CLUTTER/TARGET SIGNATURE MODEL

THE NAVY IS CURRENTLY DEVELOPING FLEET DEFENSE SYSTEMS TO DETECT TARGETS AGAINST A CLUTTER BACKGROUND. THESE SYSTEMS WILL PROVIDE THREAT WARNING AND TARGET TRACK INFORMATION. THE USE OF AN AUTONOMOUS, INFRARED SENSOR (OPERATING IN THE 3-5 UM AND 8-12 UM SPECTRAL BANDS) TO PERFORM THESE TASKS IS BEING INVESTIGATED. FALSE ALARMS FROM CLOUDS, TERRAIN AND SEA CLUTTER WILL SIGNIFICANTLY LIMIT THE PERFORMANCE OF THESE SYSTEMS. CONSEQUENTLY THESE CLUTTER SOURCES MUST BE QUANTITATIVELY UNDERSTOOD IN ORDER TO DEVELOP SIGNAL PROCESSING TECHNIQUES FOR TARGET DETECTION AND CLUTTER REJECTION. THIS WORK WILL PERFORM THE RESERCH AND IMPLEMENT THE SOFTWARE TO DEVELOP THE NSWC INFRARED SIGNATURE CODE (NISC). SPECIFICALLY WE WILL: DEVELOP INFRARED MODELS FOR TARGETS, BACKGROUNDS, AND CLUTTER; ANALYZE EXISTING IR DATABASES (EG. IRAMMP AND OTHER); DEVELOP A METHODOLOGY TO VALIDATE THE MODEL COMPONENTS; AND INCORPORATE THE MODELS INTO AN INFRARED SCENE GENERATOR (IRSGEN). AT THE CONCLUSION OF PHASE I WE WILL DELIVER TO NSWC A USER INTERACTIVE INFRARED SCENE GENERATOR (IRSGEN) THAT WILL ALLOW THE USER TO COMPOSE "SIMPLE" INFRARED SCENES.