Target Phenomenology

doi:10.1117/3.2553485.ch18

Book: Photonics Rules of Thumb, Third Edition

Author(s): John Lester Miller, Katie Schwertz, Edward J. Friedman, John N. Sanders-Reed, Brian K. McComas

Published: 2020

https://doi.org/10.1117/3.2553485.ch18

Author Affiliations +

Abstract

Generally, the properties of targets and their signatures, such as are summarized in this chapter, fall into the domain of the military designer. However, increasingly, many of these rules apply to non-military segments of the photonics market, such as machine vision, selfdriving vehicles, security cameras, paramilitary organizations, search and rescue, homeland defense systems, environmental monitoring, general surveillance, remote diagnostics, remote sensing, and industrial security. This chapter provides a brief look into the shortcut characterizations that were largely developed to assess the signatures of various potential targets for typical EO systems. Regardless of their heritage, several of these rules are applicable in the generic business of assessing what a sensor might be able to detect, recognize, or identify.