Analysis of detectability in the short-wave infrared spectral regions shows the sensitivity of this imagery towards illumination conditions and different spectral regions. It will be described how difficult the assessment of camouflage materials can be.
As the distribution and use of hyperspectral sensors is constantly increasing, the exploitation of spectral features is a threat for camouflaged objects. To improve camouflage materials at first the spectral behavior of backgrounds has to be known to adjust and optimize the spectral reflectance of camouflage materials.
In an international effort, the NATO CSO working group SCI-295 "Development of Methods for Measurements and Evaluation of Natural Background EO Signatures" is developing a method how this characterization of backgrounds has to be done. It is obvious that the spectral characterization of a background will be quite an effort. To compare and exchange data internationally the measurements will have to be done in a similar way.
To test and further improve this method an international field trial has been performed in Storkow, Germany. In the following we present first impressions and lessons learned from this field campaign and describe the data that has been measured.
Parameters like the sun angle as well as the measurement angle mostly are not taken into account when simulating because their influence on the reflectivity is weak. Therefore the impact of a changing measurement and illumination angle on the reflectivity is investigated. Furthermore the impact of humidity and chlorophyll in the scenery is studied by analyzing reflectance spectra of different vegetative background areas. It is shown that the measurement as well as the illumination angle has an important influence on the absolute reflection values which raises the importance of measurements of the bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF).
Regarding thermal camouflage usually one has to reduce the surface temperature of an object. All vehicles and installations having a combustion engine usually produce a lot of heat with results on hot spots on the surface which are highly conspicuous.
Using heat pipes to transfer this heat to another place on the surface more efficiently might be a way to reduce those hotspots and the overall conspicuity. In a first approach, a model for the Software TAIThermIR was developed to test which parameters of the heat pipes are relevant and what effects can be achieved.
It will be shown, that the thermal resistivity of contact zones are quite relevant and the thermal coupling of the engine (source of heat) defines if the alteration of the thermal signature is large or not.
Furthermore the impact of the use of heat pipes in relation to surface material is discussed. The influence of different weather scenarios on the change of signatures due to the use of heat pipes is of minor relevance and depends on the choice of the surface material.
Finally application issues for real systems are discussed.
Reflectance spectra of vegetative background areas are measured and their variation is analyzed. It is shown that the
variation of different samples is significantly larger than the accuracy of the measurement. Furthermore the difference of
diverse measurement procedures is discussed.
The spectral behavior of textile camouflage materials in the electro-optical spectral range is analyzed and compared with
different backgrounds. It is shown that it will be difficult to develop camouflage materials that match a vegetative
background in the NIR and SWIR spectral range. The problem of water absorption spectral features is discussed. In
addition the effect of different surface finishing of textiles is shown.
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