Data/Model Fusion for Missile Signature Modeling

Threat signature phenomenology plays an increasingly important role in the development of a wide variety of missile warning technologies, both at the tactical and strategic levels. As a case in example, the radiometric signature of threat surface to air missiles (SAM) must be known throughout the missile flight envelope at aspect angle orientations representing probable engagement scenarios in order to evaluate missile warning sensors and countermeasure systems. CRAFT Tech & Kinetics are proposing to complement signature measurements of missiles with advanced next generation modeling tools that can provide synthetic signature predictions utilizing modern physics-based techniques that represent the dominant physics occurring in rocket thrust chambers and exhaust plumes, including gas dynamic shock wave propagation and Mach disc formation, two-phase gas/particle non-equilibrium, exhaust plume/air mixing, afterburning chemical kinetics, afterburning shutdown with increasing altitude, and radiative transfer mechanisms in the infra-red (IR) and ultra violet (UV) spectral regions. CRAFT Tech and Kinetics also propose to develop efficient, accurate and reliable computational tools that fuse measured (supplemented by synthetic) trajectory, attitude, and signature data in order to evaluate and characterize multi-spectral IR and UV signature data of missile plumes in terms of their relevant physical/chemical and radiative characteristics.