INFRARED BACKGROUND MODELING AND ANALYSIS

THE NAVY IS CURRENTLY DEVELOPING FLEET DEFENSE SYSTEMS TO DETECT TARGETS AGAINST A STRUCTURED BACKGROUND. THESE SYSTEMS WILL PROVIDE THREAT WARNING AND TARGET TRACK INFORMATION. THE USE OF AN AUTONOMOUS, INFRARED SENSOR (OPTERATING 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 BACKGROUND SOURCES MUST BE QUANTITATIVELY UNDERSTOOD IN ORDER TO DEVELOP SIGNAL PROCESSING TECHNIQUES FOR TARGET DETECTION AND CLUTTER REJECTION. THIS WORK WILL PERFORM THE RESEARCH AND IMPLEMENT THE SOFTWARE TO DEVELOP THE CLASSES OF STRUCTURED IR BACKGROUND MODELS. SPECIFICALLY WE WILL: ANALYZE EXISTING IR DATABASES (EG. IRAMMP AND OTHER); DEVELOP INFRARED MODELS FOR TARGETS, BACKGROUNDS, AND CLUTTER;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 NWC A WORK PLAN TO CREATE USER INTERACTIVE INFRARED SCENE GENERATOR (IRSGEN) THAT WILL ALLOW THE USER TO COMPOSE MODEL INFRARED SCENES.