Obscuration Effects Of Artillery-Produced Dust Clouds On Infrared Electro-Optical Systems

As indicated in Figure 1, the problem we are addressing is that of battlefield clutter due to the presence of aerosols which diffuse in the atmosphere under the action of wind turbulence and buoyant convectimi. We have a variety of aerosol sources such as dirt kicked up by explosions, dust clouds due to wind storms and vehicular motion, haze and fog, smoke from fires, and screening smokes. Each of these aerosol sources can contribute serious degradation to the operation of electro-optical systems. Our work has been directed towards describing and developing an understanding of the various aerosol source terms and their subsequent diffusion in the atmosphere. From this, we have been developing a disturbed IR transmission (DIRTRAN) model to describe the degradation effects produced by battlefield clutter.(1) Validation of this model is being performed with the aid of data obtained at several recent Army infrared obscuration field trials.© (1979) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.