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 conditions. During trials executed in False Bay a large amount of target, background and atmosphere data was gathered that is of use in analysis of optical characteristics of targets and backgrounds. During the trials a variety of backgrounds were recorded. We have used these backgrounds to validate the TNO background model MIBS to incorporate also coastal backgrounds and sunlit sea backgrounds. In the paper we show results of the background analysis, for coastal bay backgrounds. In particular the detection of small targets by automatic system may be hampered by small surface structure variations at the surface and near the horizon. The data that we analyzed are sea surface structure, temporal behaviour, and spectral differences during different environmental conditions that occurred during the trials. This data is essential to feed detection algorithms, and performance models for the assessment of sensor performance in coastal environment. Some sensor management approaches for application in IRST systems is discussed.