Cloud Impacts For Aggregate Military Simulations Using CSSM Statistics

.The Air Force Research Laboratory developed the Cloud Scene Simulation Model (CSSM) and the Infrared Target Scene Simulation (IRTSS) software for simulating realistic, high-fidelity weather effects in air-to-ground combat missions. The combination of CSSM and IRTSS allows for the generation of infrared scenes of a military ground target against a complex background. These scenes are computed from physical modeling of the thermal characteristics of the target and background and the intervening atmosphere, including clouds. For aggregate simulations which run many times faster than real time, it is usually not possible to perform the detailed calculations inherent to CSSM and IRTSS due to computing resource limitations. The purpose of the CSSM Stats project is to provide a mechanism to take advantage of the high-fidelity nature of the CSSM and IRTSS. Many “virtual sorties” are executed in the high-fidelity environment. The outcomes of these sorties would be used to develop probability of target detection statistics based on such things as the weather conditions (e.g. cloud coverage and humidity), the specifics of the weapon sensor (e.g. field-of-view, sensitivity), and the tactics (e.g. minimum altitude and standoff range). This process would produce probability tables accessed at simulation time using a minimum of computing resources. We have applied the CSSM Statistics capability to both air-to-ground combat situations as well as space-based missile detection