Real-Time Simulation and Sensor Performance Evaluation of Space-Based Infrared Point Target Group

Abstract

Small space targets are usually present in the form of point sources when observed by space-based sensors. To ease the difficulty of obtaining real observation images and overcome the limitations of the existing Systems Tool Kit/electro-optical and infrared sensors (STK/EOIR) module in supporting the display and output of point target observation results from multiple platforms of the constellation, a method is provided for the fast simulation of point target groups using EOIR combined with external computation. A star lookup table based on the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) infrared astrometry catalog is established by dividing the grid to generate the background. A Component Object Model (COM) is used to connect STK to enable the rapid deployment and visualization of complex simulation scenarios. Finally, the automated output of simulated images and infrared information is achieved. Simulation experiments on point targets show that the method can support 20 sensors to image groups of targets at 128 × 128 resolution and achieve 32 frames of real-time output at 1 K × 1 K resolution, providing an effective approach to spatial situational awareness and the building of target infrared datasets.