Atmospheric scintillation simulator
AssigneeNorthrop Grumman Corporation
InventorsJames A. Wes, Harold J. Orlando, Steven R. Zammit
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus and method for simulating atmospheric scintillation includes a scintillation disk and a motor for rotating the disk at a substantially high speed. The disk has a dense varied pattern of substantially small closely spaced holes. The holes have different sizes and are arranged with a spatial distribution that is gaussian in amplitude and poisson distributed in separation. The motor can spin the disk to produce desired temporal variations as energy from the energy source passes through the holes of the disk.
Claims16
Apparatus for simulating atmospheric scintillation comprising:
- a target source having a target source output;
- a scintillation medium located in a path of the target source output, the scintillation medium having a variety of different apertures therethrough;
- and
- means for moving the scintillation medium to thereby vary the target source output passing through the scintillation medium due to movement of the apertures into, through, and out of the target source output path.
An apparatus for simulating atmospheric scintillation of an energy source, the apparatus comprising:
- a scintillation disk having a dense varied pattern of substantially small closely placed holes, the holes having different sizes and spatial distribution that is Gaussian in amplitude and poisson distributed in separation;
- and
- means for rotating the disk at a substantially high speed to produce desired temporal variations as energy from the energy source passes through the holes of the disk.
A method for simulating atmospheric scintillation in an infrared test collimator comprising steps of:
- positioning a scintillation disk in front of a target source, the disk having a dense varied pattern of different holes, the target source having an output that intersects only a portion of the disk;
- and
- spinning the disk at a substantially high speed to produce temporal variations as the target source output passes through the holes of the disk as the holes move into, through, and out of the target source output.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.