SCITEC INC — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: The Naval Air Warfare Center (NAWC) needs accurate, autonomous techniques for atmospheric

Description

The Naval Air Warfare Center (NAWC) needs accurate, autonomous techniques for atmospheric correction of airborne imaging sensors to support flight testing, specifically validation of Noise-Equivalent Differential Temperature (NEDT) capabilities of Electro-Optical/Infrared (EO/IR) sensors used for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) applications. Outside of a controlled laboratory environment, temperature retrieval and measurement of NEDT are subject to the uncertainties that enter in through a number of variable terms, most of which are due to the earth"s atmosphere. The lack of timely atmospheric measurements with regard to any given test location and duration makes it a challenge to accurately characterize the composition of absorbing species along a sensor"s line of sight to a target under real-world conditions. SciTec proposes to develop and deliver a capability to perform autonomous ingest and fusion of available atmospheric profile data with that collected by a ground-based meteorological station. This capability will contain a direct implementation of MODTRAN for performing the radiative transport calculations, thus providing representations of the atmosphere that will dramatically enhance EO/IR temperature retrieval and NEDT characterization. SciTec will bring its decades of experience in ISR sensor testing and performance evaluation to deliver a precision automated process for sensor calibration and testing to the NAVAIR T & E team.