Dr. Roderik A. Overzier Profile

Dr. Roderik A. Overzier

Senior Scientist at TNO Defence, Safety & Security

SPIE Involvement:

Author

Roderik Overzier (PhD astrophysics, Leiden Observatory, 2006) is an experienced astrophysicist and defense expert. His defense work focuses on areas related to terrestrial and space-based sensing and observation, telecommunications, advanced weapon systems and (counter)space. He is Lead of programs on EM propagation and directed energy weapons. His astrophysics work focuses on black holes, extragalactic astronomy, cosmology, astronomical instrumentation and simulations. He is the principle investigator of observational programs with the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes. He has authored over 100 peer-reviewed articles, and his work has appeared in numerous news and popular science outlets.

Proceedings Article | 1 November 2024 Presentation + Paper

Considerations on thermal blooming in relation to modern HEL systems

H. M. Schleijpen, L. C. Scheers, G. J. Vissers, R. Overzier, A. M. van Eijk, J. Tokaya

Proceedings Volume 13201, 132010D (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3031778

KEYWORDS: Thermal blooming, Distortion, Absorption, Turbulence, Aerosols, Atmospheric propagation, Wind speed, Atmospheric modeling, Simulations, Refractive index

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Research into thermal blooming effects in laser beam propagation has been initiated within ten years after the first demonstration of a laser. Results of these studies have been published in excellent review papers. Now several decades later, developments in laser technology are bringing High Energy Laser systems closer to actual operational application and to power levels where thermal blooming might affect the system performance. In support of understanding HEL performance and development of potential mitigation measures, it is of interest to be able to estimate the limits when a system will enter conditions where thermal blooming will affect performance. This will also support understanding of potential mitigation measures. This paper discusses which parameters influence thermal blooming in a High Energy Laser system in several realistic scenarios. The influence of these parameters on the laser beam are illustrated analytically for a collimated High Energy Laser beam. We provide a simplified derivation of the distortion parameter as presented in the review papers. This distortion parameter will be used to explore the effect of thermal blooming on three generic HEL systems: short range (I), medium range (II) and large range (III), with corresponding power levels for more complex beam shapes, thermal blooming effects on the power on target are analysed with wave optics simulations. Thermal blooming critically depends on the atmospheric conditions. More specifically: the molecular absorption, the wind speed component perpendicular to the beam and the atmospheric transmission losses due to scatter and absorption by aerosols and molecules in general. The averages of these parameters and their variability over location and time, have been analysed by exploring a data base over weather parameters collected over the whole of Europe in 2019. For a specific location in the Mediterranean their effect on thermal blooming in a generic large range HEL system are calculated. The combined effect of turbulence and thermal blooming has been investigated as well, to explore where one or the other effect might dominate and how the combined effect degrades HEL-system performance. Finally, some considerations on mitigation of thermal blooming effects by system design choices or change in wavelength are given.

Proceedings Article | 1 November 2024 Presentation + Paper

High energy lasers as an anti-satellite capability

Roderik Overzier, Sven van Binsbergen, Alexander M. van Eijk, Eva Fernández Rodríguez, Alexander C. ter Haar, Loes C. Scheers, Ric Schleijpen

Proceedings Volume 13201, 132010G (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3031520

KEYWORDS: Satellites, Sensors, Adaptive optics, Pulsed laser operation, Atmospheric optics, Turbulence, Thermal blooming, Laser energy, Beam diameter, Laser damage threshold

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Proceedings Article | 23 October 2023 Presentation

Numerical analysis of propagation conditions in which conventional adaptive optics can improve laser-directed energy weapons beam shaping

Loes Scheers, Gregal Vissers, Pieter Piscaer, Sven Van Binsbergen, Robert Nieuwenhuizen, Roderik Overzier, Lex Van Eijk, Ric Schleijpen

Proceedings Volume PC12739, PC1273902 (2023) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2683965

KEYWORDS: Adaptive optics, Numerical analysis, Laser optics, Laser energy, Laser beam propagation, Improvised weapons, Energy based weapons, Beam shaping, Wave propagation, Optical aberrations

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Proceedings Article | 19 October 2023 Presentation + Paper

Laser beam propagation over the sea surface: experimental data and verification of simulations

L. C. Scheers, G. J. M. Vissers, S. van Binsbergen, A. Huerta Viso, R. Overzier, A. P. Oosterwijk, A. M. van Eijk, E. Sucher, K. Stein

Proceedings Volume 12731, 127310E (2023) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2683975

KEYWORDS: Atmospheric propagation, Laser beam propagation, Beam wander, Scintillation, Beam propagation method, Atmospheric modeling

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Proceedings Article | 29 August 2022 Presentation + Paper

MANIFEST@GMT science overview: a multi-interface, multi-mode instrument science and simulations

Tayyaba Zafar, Jonathan Lawrence, Jessica Zheng, David Adams, Vitor Hartmann, Celestina Lacombe, Michael Goodwin, Nuria Lorente, Ellie O'Brien, Will Saunders, Helen McGregor, Lew Waller, Nirmala Kunwar, Daniel Faes, Jennifer Marshall, Darren DePoy, Alexandar Ji, Dennis Zaritsky, Casey Papovich, Steven Finkelstein, Andrew Szentgyorgyi, Roderik Overzier, Kyler Kuehn, Luca Cortese, Scott Croom, Sarah Martell, Matthew Colless, Anilkumar Mailvaganam, Andrew Hopkins, Magda Arnaboldi, Céline Péroux, Christian Johnson

Proceedings Volume 12184, 1218417 (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2628142

KEYWORDS: Galactic astronomy, Spectrographs, Stars, Interfaces, Telescopes, Polarimetry, Kinematics, Radio astronomy, Gamma radiation, Device simulation

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