FIREBALL STRUCTURE TO NON-VISIBLE WAVELENGTHS

PROPOSED MILITARY OPTICAL SENSOR SYSTEMS WILL OPERATE IN ENVIRONMENTS WITH STRUCTURED EMITTING BACKGROUNDS PRODUCED BY NUCLEAR WEAPON BURSTS. IN GENERAL, THESE OPTICAL SENSORS WILL OPERATE AT NON-VISIBLEWAVELENGTHS FOR WHICH THERE HAVE BEEN NO MEASUREMENTS OF NUCLEAR PRODUCED BACKGROUNDS. MODELS OF AVERAGE NUCLEAR PRODUCED BACKGROUNDS HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED FROM THEORETICAL MODELS OF VOLUME EMISSION AND RADIANCE CALCULATIONS WHICH INCLUDE OPTICAL RADIATION TRANSPORT EFFECTS. THE EFFECT OF OPTICAL STRUCTURE IS MODELED THROUGH KNOWLEDGE OF PARAMETERS DESCRIBING THE STRUCTURE POWER SPECTRAL DENSITY (PSD). HOWEVER, ALL PSD CHARACTERISTICS HAVE BEEN OBTAINED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS IN VISIBLE WAVELENGTHS. THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODELS RELATING OBSERVED STRUCTURE PARAMETERS IN VISIBLE WAVELENGTHS TO NON-VISIBLE WAVELENGTHS IS OF HIGH IMPORTANCE. ALSO OF HIGH INTEREST FOR POSSIBLE DISCRIMINATION ALGORITHMS IS BAND-TO-BAND CORRELATION OF NON-VISIBLE WAVELENGTH EMISSIONS; MODEL OF SUCH CORRELATIONS ARE NEEDED FOR GENERAL BURST ALTITUDE/YIELD COMBINATIONS. SUCH MODELS CAN BE INCORPORATED INTO DNA/RAAE COMPUTER CODE SIMULATIONS OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS EFFECTS.