PARAMETERS PERTINENT TO THE DETECTION OF ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION IN SPACE-TO-SPACE CONFIGURATIONS,

Abstract : The ultraviolet spectral region below 2800 Angstroms might prove advantageous for passive space-to-space surveillance, and for the active transmission of secure messages between friendly spacecraft. This follows since terrain based countermeasures would be frustrated by the opacity of the atmosphere and because the background noise would be at a minimum. The success of either of these applications would be dependent upon the reception of signals suitably above the noise level set by the combination of background and system noises. The physical origins of possible target signals and of background noise are discussed and related to more basic parameters. Some estimates are given for the expected magnitudes of these quantities under the assumptions of various realistic configurations. Signal-to-noise relations are presented. (Author)