FESTER: A propagation experiment, overview and first results

A long term field trial called FESTER (First European South African Transmission Experiment) has been conducted by an international collaboration of research organizations during the course of almost one year at False Bay, South Africa. Main objectives of the experiment are a better insight into atmospherical effects on propagation of optical...

Vertical atmospheric variability measured above water during the FESTER experiment: First results

The First European South African Experiment (FESTER) was conducted over about a 10 month period at the Institute of Maritime Technology (IMT) in False Bay, South Africa. One of the important goals was to validate atmospheric refraction and turbulence models. To achieve this goal it was required to measure the vertical profile of meteorological...

The FESTER field trial

An overview is given of the First European - South African Transmission ExpeRiment (FESTER), which took place in South Africa, over the False Bay area, centered around Simon's Town. The experiment lasted from April 2015 through February 2016 and involved continuous observations as well as periodic observations that took place during four...

Path homogeneity along a horizontal line-of-sight path during the FESTER experiment: First results

The First European South African Experiment (FESTER) was conducted over about a 10 month period at the Institute of Maritime Technology (IMT) in False Bay, South Africa. One of the important goals was the establishment of the air-sea temperature difference (ASTD) homogeneity along the main propagation link atmospheric path since it is a basic...

Characteristics of turbulence driven atmospheric blur over coastal water

For users of Electro-Optical (EO) sensors at sea, knowledge on their resolution is of key operational importance for the prediction of the obtainable classification ranges. Small targets may be located at ranges of 20 km and more and the present day sensor pixel size may be as small as 10 μrad. In this type of scenarios, sensor resolution will...

Validation of atmospheric propagation models in littoral waters

Various atmospheric propagation effects are limiting the long range performance of electro-optical imaging systems. These effects include absorption and scattering by molecules and aerosols, refraction due to vertical temperature gradients and scintillation and blurring due to turbulence. In maritime and coastal areas, ranges up to 25 km are...

Long-term measurements of atmospheric point spread functions over littoral waters, as determined by atmospheric turbulence

During the FATMOSE trial, held over the False Bay (South Africa) from November 2009 until October 2010, day and night (24/7) high resolution images were collected of point sources at a range of 15.7 km. Simultaneously, data were collected on atmospheric parameters, as relevant for the turbulence conditions: air- and sea temperature, windspeed,...

Characteristics of long-range scintillation data over maritime coastal areas

The knowledge on scintillation, caused by atmospheric turbulence, is of vital importance for the performance prediction of threat detection systems and for the development of associated detection algorithms. Additionally, scintillation data may support the knowledge on turbulence characteristics. Along these ideas, data have been analysed,...

Marine boundary layer investigations in the False Bay, supported by optical refraction and scintillation measurements

Knowledge on the marine boundary layer is of importance for the prediction of the optical image quality obtained from long range targets. One property of the boundary layer, that can be studied rather easily by means of optical refraction measurements, is the vertical temperature profile. This profile can be compared with the profile, as...

Application of year-round atmospheric transmission data, collected with the MSRT multiband transmissometer during the FATMOSE trial in the False Bay area

The FATMOSE trial (False Bay Atmospheric Experiment) is a continuation of the cooperative work between TNO and IMT on atmospheric propagation and point target detection and identification in a maritime environment (South Africa). The atmospheric transmission, being of major importance for target detection, was measured with the MSRT multiband...

Optical characteristics of small surface targets, measured in the False Bay, South Africa; June 2007

During the False Bay trial (June 2007), the performance of a set of three optical sensors was tested against several small surface targets in a coastal area: a hyperspectral camera, a camera with a rotating polarization filter and a high resolution camera. One objective was the validation of a contrast and clutter model for the visual spectral...

Infrared Background analysis of Bay environments

Present-day naval operations take place in coastal environments as well as narrow straits all over the world. Coastal environments around the world are exhibiting a number of threats to naval forces. In particular a large number of asymmetric threats can be present in environments with cluttered backgrounds as well as rapidly varying atmospheric...

IRST Infrared Background analysis of Bay environments

Present-day naval operations take place in coastal environments as well as narrow straits all over the world. Coastal environments around the world are exhibiting a number of threats to naval forces. In particular a large number of asymmetric threats can be present in environments with cluttered backgrounds as well as rapidly varying atmospheric...

Optical Characterisation of small surface targets

Present-day naval operations take place in coastal environments as well as narrow straits all over the world. Coastal environments around the world are exhibiting a number of threats to naval forces. In particular a large number of asymmetric threats can be present in environments with cluttered backgrounds as well as rapidly varying atmospheric...