FIRSTview: Accurate Ground-Truth Signature Measurement

Infrared Search and Track (IRST) systems are a critical part of the USAF’s tactical advantage in offensive and defense air-to-air capabilities. Air Force Test Center (AFTC) is tasked with performing accurate qualification testing to verify that the IRST systems meet their stated specifications, by comparing to a baseline ground-truth. Efforts to computationally model aircraft signatures tend to be insufficient for such long-range, high-dynamic test environments. Therefore, AFTC has an outstanding need to collect close-range air-to-air high-accuracy calibrated IR signature data of a target aircraft with dense spatial and spectral resolution, while simultaneously measuring atmospheric properties during testing, Intelligent Automation, Inc., in collaboration with Adaptive Aerospace Corp. and Resonant Sciences, LLC, proposes to expand upon and extend our research efforts from Phase I to develop an integrated, flight-qualified, sensor pod system that performs accurate air-to-air ground-truth measurements of multi-spectral IR signature and atmospheric properties, called FIRSTview. The system will concentrate on accurately measuring the two primary elements that are needed to compute an aircraft’s signature: (1) the temperature profile of the aircraft and plume, and (2) the transmission and scatter characteristics of the intervening atmosphere. FIRSTview is being designed for flexibility and modularity to accommodate future sensor upgrades.