Analysis of infrared signatures of exo-atmosphere micro-motion objects based on inertial parameters

Abstract As one of important physical properties of exo-atmosphere objects, micro-motion dynamics provides extra information for objects discrimination. In this paper, a model and theoretical analysis of time sequence of infrared (IR) signature considering different inertial parameters of micro-motion objects are presented. It overcomes the shortcoming of the existing methods, which depend on the assumption of specific micro-motion types. Firstly, an inertial model of exo-atmosphere micro-motion object is constructed. Next, the relationship between inertial parameters and IR signature model is derived. Finally, power spectral density transformed from the time sequence of IR signature is obtained. Four groups of simulations are conducted demonstrating the effects of inertial parameters posed on IR signature. Simulation results show that inertial parameters including moments of inertia (MOI) and initial angular rate (IAR) determine the period of motion, thus the frequency of time-varying radiant intensity received by the sensor. The proposed method exploits more explicit physical meaning of exo-atmosphere micro-motion objects and provides a novel approach to characterize exo-atmosphere micro-motion objects irrespective of their specific micro-motion types, which exhibits a greater flexibility in IR objects discrimination tasks.