Comparison of the emission of IR decoy flare under controlled laboratory and on-field conditions

Carmen Sánchez Oliveros; Laura Martín Aragón; Raquel Macias Jareño

doi:10.1117/12.830339

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25 September 2009 Comparison of the emission of IR decoy flare under controlled laboratory and on-field conditions

Carmen Sánchez Oliveros, Laura Martín Aragón, Raquel Macias Jareño

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Proceedings Volume 7483, Technologies for Optical Countermeasures VI; 74830L (2009) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.830339
Event: SPIE Security + Defence, 2009, Berlin, Germany

Abstract

The knowledge of the optical properties of decoy flares such as peak intensity, rise time and function time as well as the trajectory after being ejected are crucial to ensure the decoy effectiveness and the protection of the aircraft. The Countermeasures Laboratory of the "Institute of technology Marañosa" (ITM) has performed a measurement campaign during the spring of 2008 to determine the IR decoy signature in both wind tunnel test and in-flight conditions. Both tests are complementary because of the different test conditions that influence the behavior of the flare burn profile. Deviations were found between two sets of data due to high wind-stream and high altitudes. Comparison of both sets of results allows extrapolating the measurements in stationary conditions to that of a real scenario. Besides, these comparisons are useful to validate IR flare emission simulation software. The radiant intensity and burn time was calculated trough a sequence of calibrated images. The effect of the influent parameter on the emitted intensity were also Identified and measured. Analysis of in-flight measurements took into account the altitude, aerodynamic conditions, angle aspect and of course the wind speed. Sky radiance and atmospheric transmittance were also calculated. The radiation measurements of IR flares on flight and wind tunnel test are performed with a MWIR camera equipped with a 350mm focal length lens. Besides the camera a Circular Variable Filter (CVF) spectrorradiometer was used for the tunnel test. For the field trial an automatic tracking system of targets were used in order to determine the flare trajectory.

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Carmen Sánchez Oliveros, Laura Martín Aragón, and Raquel Macias Jareño "Comparison of the emission of IR decoy flare under controlled laboratory and on-field conditions", Proc. SPIE 7483, Technologies for Optical Countermeasures VI, 74830L (25 September 2009); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.830339

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