The Nature of Gun Smoke and Dust Obscuration Due to Cannon Firing
Abstract
Fire control systems must contend with maintaining target visibility during firing. In addition, sophisticated future fire control systems have been proposed which provide an optical guidance link to the projectile, or track a fired projectile along its trajectory and sense the miss distance at the target for automatic correction. To be successful, these systems must be able to optically track the projectile during the first few seconds after firing, during which time the transparency of the atmosphere near the muzzle is very seriously degraded by gun gases, gun smoke, and dust clouds created from the ground by muzzle blast. This paper presents an analysis of optical transmission data in three wavelength regions (visible, near IR, and far IR) collected for single shot firing of a Rarden 30 mm cannon. Spectroscopic and light scattering techniques are used to identify muzzle gas and aerosol components, and a quantitative model is constructed using Mie scattering calculations to identify equivalent monodisperse aerosols for the smoke and dust. Concentrations of ammonia gas from the muzzle emissions which produce significant extinction in the 10.6 microns spectral region are identified and their dissipation with time is followed.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 1979
- Accession Number
- ADA074352
Entities
People
- Edward W. Stuebing
- Emmanuel A. Lucia
- Frank D. Verderame
- James J. Pinto
- Robert W. Doherty
Organizations
- United States Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center