Determining the Position and Trajectory of Supersonic Projectiles from Acoustic Measurements
Abstract
Locating the trajectory of an incoming projectile has important military and civilian applications. The origin of the trajectory can be used to locate sniper fire and the end-point can be used to determine target bit coordinates on appropriately instrumented target ranges used by armed forces as well as civilian agencies (police and sports). Such non-contact determination of bit coordinates can be integrated into a completely computerized instrumentation scoring system. All supersonic projectiles are accompanied by a bow wave often referred to as the "Mach Cone" which is virtually attached to the ogive of the projectile and which can be detected acoustically. When a distributed array of microphones detect the arrival of this cone, it is possible to calculate the position and angle of the trajectory from the microphone data. This paper discusses the analysis and models developed by the author, which enable computation of the trajectory from distributed arrays of acoustic microphones. The mathematical models described here can serve as the basis for an algorithmic procedure, which can be used to obtain the trajectory data in near real time. We also discuss the principal sources of error and the inherent limitations in accuracy of locating trajectories by this method.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2000
- Accession Number
- ADA392161
Entities
People
- Paul Kisatsky
Organizations
- United States Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center