Impact of Hypersonic Flight Environment on Electro-Optic/Infrared (EO/IR) Sensors

EO/IR sensors can provide high spatial resolution images using multiple frequency bands ranging from the visible to mid-wave IR. EO/IR sensors have been very successful for terrain imaging from subsonic aircraft and from satellites. Imaging using these platforms has been studied extensively. EO/IR sensors can provide high spatial resolution images using multiple frequency bands ranging from the visible to mid-wave IR. EO/IR sensors have been very successful for terrain imaging from subsonic aircraft and from satellites. Imaging using these platforms has been studied extensively. However, the study of such sensors on-board hypersonic platforms has not been performed with any detail thus far. The objective of this effort is the development of a set of software tools to assess the effects of the hypersonic flow environment on electro-optic/infrared (EO/IR) optical systems for a given flight profile and mission. This toolset consists of standalone applications for evaluation of the hypersonic effects and middleware to link various state-of-the-art discipline-specific engineering applications used for multidisciplinary design and analysis of Electro/Optic (EO/IR) systems.