The Light of the Night Sky: Extending the Spectral Interval for Military Night Vision Devices

Abstract

There are four sources of radiation from the night sky that extend into longer wavelengths: moonlight, that from the Meinel Bands, scattered and direct radiation from stars, and galactic radiation from space. Radiation from the Meinel Bands, which extends into the visible and near infrared, is due to recombination of the hydrogen and hydroxyl ions dissociated by sunlight during daylight hours. This radiation is also known as airglow. This paper documents the results of a literature search made to establish a credible basis for pursuing or abandoning an effort to employ airglow out to a wavelength approaching 2 microns.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 2001
Accession Number
ADA392058

Entities

People

  • Lucien M. Biberman

Organizations

  • Institute for Defense Analyses

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics
  • Air Platforms
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Artificial Satellites
  • Electro-Optics
  • Electromagnetic Metamaterials
  • Electromagnetic Radiation
  • Electromagnetic Scattering
  • Environment
  • Geography
  • Light Sources
  • Measurement
  • Night Vision
  • Night Vision Devices
  • Optical Properties
  • Optics
  • Photonic Metamaterials
  • Radiation
  • Scattering
  • Solar System

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Astronomy/Astrophysics
  • Image Processing and Computer Vision.
  • Vision Science/Vision Psychology/Cognitive Neuroscience.

Technology Areas

  • Space