Title
Infrared ship signature analysis and optimisation
Author
TNO Defensie en Veiligheid
Neele, F.P.
Publication year
2005
Abstract
The last decade has seen an increase in the awareness of the infrared signature of naval ships. New ship designs show that infrared signature reduction measures are being incorporated, such as exhaust gas cooling systems, relocation of the exhausts and surface cooling systems. Hull and superstructure are cooled with dedicated spray systems, in addition to special paint systems that are being developed for optimum stealth. This paper presents a method to develop requirements for the emissivity of a ship's coating that reduces the contrast of the ship against its background in the wavelength band or bands of threat sensors. As this contrast strongly depends on the atmospheric environment, these requirements must follow from a detailed analysis of the infrared signature of the ship in its expected areas of operation. Weather statistics for a large number of areas have been collected to produce a series of 'standard environments'. These environments have been used to demonstrate the method of specifying coating emissivity requirements. Results are presented to show that the optimised coatings reduce the temperature contrast. The use of the standard environments yields a complete, yet concise, description of the signature of the ship over its areas of operation. The signature results illustrate the strong dependence of the infrared signature on the atmospheric environment and can be used to identify those conditions where signature reduction is most effective in reducing the ship's susceptibility to detection by IR sensors.
Subject
Infrared signature
Ships
Signature optimisation
Signature prediction model
Cooling
Exhaust gases
Infrared detectors
Optical sensors
Optimization
Infrared ship signature analysis
Infrared signature
Signature optimization
Signature prediction model
Signal filtering and prediction
To reference this document use:
http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:11d174ce-732d-4158-8c14-523971a37b35
TNO identifier
221680
Source
Targets and Backgrounds XI: Characterization and Representation, edited by Wendell R. Watkins, Dieter Clement, William R. Reynolds, Proceedings of SPIE Vol. 5811, 5811 (5811), 188-198
Document type
conference paper