Research Article Vol. 28, No.

5 / 2 March 2020 / Optics Express 6172

Evaluating imaging quality of optical dome

affected by aero-optical transmission effect and
aero-thermal radiation effect
WANG H UI , 1 S HOUQIAN C HEN , 1 WANG Z HANG , 1 FANYANG
DANG , 2 L IN J U , 1 X IANMEI X U , 1 AND Z HIGANG FAN 1,*
1 Research Center of Space Optical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Heilongjiang, Harbin
150001, China
2 Key Laboratory of In-fiber Integrated Optics, Ministry of Education of China, Harbin Engineering
University, Harbin 150001, China
* fzg@hit.edu.cn

Abstract: The imaging quality of the aerodynamically heated optical dome was evaluated under
the comprehensive influence of aero-optical transmission effect and aero-thermal radiation effect.
The ray propagating algorithm based on the fourth order Runge-Kutta method was used to trace
the target ray and the thermal radiation ray of the optical dome. Three imaging quality evaluation
parameters were proposed to evaluate aero-optical effect: Modulation transfer function (MTF),
irradiance, peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) of distorted images. The results show that: as
the flight speed increased, the MTF decreased observably compared with the diffraction-limit
MTF, the irradiance on the photosensitive surface of the detector increased gradually, and the
distorted imaging quality under the influence of the comprehensive aero-optical effect gradually
deteriorated. However, as the thickness of the optical dome increased, the MTF decreased sharply
and the irradiance decreased gradually, that indicated the aero-optical transmission effect was
reinforced and the aero-thermal radiation effect was weakened. The imaging quality improved
with thickness increasing. The influence of aero-thermal radiation effect on the PSNR of the
image was more serious than that of the aero-optical transmission effect.

© 2020 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement

1. Introduction
When a missile with an infrared seeker flies at high speed, the flow field in front of the optical
dome forms a strong shock wave, causing its temperature and pressure to change constantly. The
flow field and optical dome is primarily convective heat transfer. The non-uniform temperature
and pressure distribution of the flow field results in the non-uniform distribution of temperature,
deformation and refractive index of a aerodynamically heated optical dome. The beam was
broken up after transmitting through flow field and optical dome, resulting in the image blurring,
jittering, offsetting and losing of resolution. These are referred to as aero-optical transmission
effect. Intense infrared radiation emitted by the high temperature shock wave and aerodynamically
heated optical dome produces background noise signal on the target image and reduces the
signal-to-noise ratio of optical seeker. In severe cases, “thermal barrier” phenomenon is formed
and the target signal is overwhelmed by noise signal. These are referred to as aero-thermal
radiation effect. The aero-optical transmission effect and the aero-thermal radiation effect are
collectively known as aero-optical effect [1]. In recent years, there has been increasing interest in
aero-optical issues with the development of high-speed missiles and laser weapon systems. Wang
[2] developed a numerical model for predicting the aero-optical performance of the supersonic
flow field and computed phase variances brought from the density fluctuations. Xu [3] adopted
ray tracing based on Runge-Kutta method to examine the influence of altitude on aero-optic
imaging deviation, indicating that the imaging deviation decreases as altitude increasing. Guo

#373020 https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.373020
Journal © 2020 Received 1 Aug 2019; revised 9 Feb 2020; accepted 13 Feb 2020; published 19 Feb 2020
 Research Article Vol. 28, No. 5 / 2 March 2020 / Optics Express 6173

[4] adopted the direct simulation Monte Carlo based on the Boltzmann Eq. and the ray-racing
method to simulate beam transmission through the nonuniform flow field over the optical window.
Xu et al. [5] proposed a backward ray-tracing method for aero-optics simulations of flow field,
with the advantage of simplifing the ray-tracing computation markedly in aero-optics simulations.
Fan et al.[6–8]employed an irregular grid model to describe the refractive index distribution of
an aerodynamically heated optical dome, and investigated the joint influences exerted by the
nonuniform aerodynamic flow field surrounding the different shapes of optical dome and the
aerodynamic heating of the dome on imaging quality degradation. The optical dome profile
includes: spherical dome, ellipsoidal dome, and Paraboloidal dome. Niu et al.[9] examined the
infrared thermal radiation noise of a flying supersonic dome at near-ground altitudes, and the
results showed that the radiance received by the dome surface was proportional to the dome radius.
Wang et al. [10] investigated the influence of the radiation of the aerodynamically heated optical
dome on the detector and indicated the effect exerted by the radiation of the aerodynamically
heated dome on the detector should not be neglected. Zhang et al. [11] examined the relationship
between the variation of the dome’s optical characteristics and the infrared image degradation,
and the results showed that the thermo-optic effect, elastic-optic effect, thermal deformation, and
variation of transmittance have little effect on the optical system, the thermal radiation degraded
imaging quality severely. However, the imaging evaluation parameters were not presented in his
paper. Although numerous papers on aero-optics have been published, most of them focus on
the aero-optical effect of the flow field. Only a few have focused on comprehensive influence of
aero-optical transmission effect and aero-thermal radiation effect on imaging quality degradation
of optical dome.
The primary coverage of this study could summarize the following points: (1) examine the
refractive index distribution of the optical dome based on the thermo-optical and develop a
ray-tracing program to trace the ray from the target and the thermal radiation of the optical dome;
(2) Three evaluation parameters (MTF, irradiance, PSNR of distorted images) were established to
evaluate the aero-optical transmission effect and the aero-thermal radiation effect; (3) investigate
the influence of flight speed and thickness of optical dome on aero-optical transmission effect
and aero-thermal radiation effect.

2. Optical dome analysis

2.1. Refractive index of optical dome and ray transmission algorithms
Under the aero-thermal environment, the temperature of the optical dome was non-uniform
gradient distribution. The thermal-structural coupling analysis of the optical dome was carried
out by using the finite element software ANSYS, and temperature distribution t(x, y, z) of the
optical dome was obtained. Due to the non-uniform temperature field distribution of the optical
dome, thermal stress and thermal strain are generated inside the dome [12,13]. According to
the thermo-optical effect and elasto-optical effect, the refractive index of the optical dome was
also non-uniform gradient distribution. Since the variation value of refractive index caused
by thermo-optical effect was much more larger than that caused by elasto-optical effect, only
the change value of refractive index caused by the thermo-optical effect was considered. The
phenomenon that the refractive index of optical material changes with temperature is referred to
as the thermo-optical effect, which can be expressed as [6]
d(λ, t)
n[λ, t(x, y, z)] = n(λ, t0 ) + ∆t(x, y, z) (1)
dt
where n(λ, t0 ) is the refractive index of any grid node at reference temperature t0 , dn(λ, t)/ dt is
thermo-optical coefficient, ∆t(x, y, z) is temperature change value of t(x, y, z) relative to t0 .
Since the refractive index of aerodynamically heated optical dome was non-uniform gradient
distribution, rays transmitting through the dome were curved lines determined by the Fermat
 Research Article Vol. 28, No. 5 / 2 March 2020 / Optics Express 6174

principle. It can be expressed as [3,14,15]

d dr
 
n(r) = ∇n(r) (2)
ds ds

where r is the position vector of ray propagation, ds is a step size along propagation path, and
n(r) is the refractive index distribution.
Equation (2) described the relationship between the refractive index of medium and the change
of optical propagation path. It’s a second order differential equation. By introducing a new
parameter t, the Eq. (2) was simplified to a first order differential Eq. Systems.
ds
∫
t= (3)
n(r)
Then Eq. (2) can be expressed as

d2 r
= n(r)∇n(r) (4)
dt2
Equation (4) can be expressed as first order differential Eq. systems.

dr
=T


dt
(5)


dT

 dt = n(r)∇n(r)

The fourth order Runge-Kutta method was used to solve Eqs. (5), then the recursive equations
were obtained as follows [16]:

 ri+1 = ri + h6 (K1 + 2K2 + 2K3 + K4 )



(6)

 Ti+1 = Ti + h6 (L1 + 2L2 + 2L3 + L4 )


where Kj and Lj (j=1,2,3,4) can be expressed as Eqs. (7) and (8). h in Eq. (8) was the tracing step
length.
K1 = Ti






 K2 = Ti + hL1 / 2


(7)



 K3 = Ti + hL2 / 2


 K4 = Ti + hL3



L1 = n(r)∇n(r) (atri )






 L2 = n(r)∇n(r) (atri + hK1 / 2, in the direction of K1 )


(8)

 L3 = n(r)∇n(r) (atri + hK2 / 2, in the direction of K2 )




 L4 = n(r)∇n(r) (atri + hK3 , in the direction of K3 )



By adopting the fourth order Runge-Kutta method to solve Fermat formula, the coordinates of
ray propagate points ri in the non-uniform refractive index medium can be obtained.
 Research Article Vol. 28, No. 5 / 2 March 2020 / Optics Express 6175

2.2. Aerodynamic optical transmission of the optical dome

By tracing the target ray transmitting through the optical dome and accumulating the optical path
length within each tracing step length, optical path length (OPL) of an arbitrary ray at the exit
pupil can be obtained. It can be expressed as [6,7]
Õ
OPLk = ni (r)li (9)
i

where ni (r) is the refractive index of the ith step of ray tracing at r, li is the optical transmission
distance of the ith step of ray tracing.
Then the wave aberration at the entire exit pupil can be expressed as [8]
Õ 2π
W(x, y) = (OPLk − OPL) (10)
k
λ

where OPL denotes the average OPL.

The pupil function of the optical dome can be expressed as [6]

 a(x, y) exp[jW(x, y)]x2 + y2 ≤ (D/ 2)2



A(x , y ) = (11)
0 0

 0
 x2 + y2 ≥ (D/ 2)2

Where a(x, y) is the amplitude distribution of the pupil function and D is the pupil diameter.
The target imaging process of a supersonic aircraft usually satisfies the far-field approximation
condition. According to Huygens principle, the amplitude distribution of the light field at the
image plane can be obtained by Fourier transform as follows [17]
2π 0
∫∫  
U(x , y ) =
0 0
A(x, y) exp - j (xx + yy ) dxdy
0
(12)
λf
where f is the focal length of the optical system.
The optical system is generally considered as a linear system. When the rays emitted from the
object transmits through the linear system to the image space, the frequency remains unchanged,
but the contrast decreases and phase shifts occur simultaneously.
The relationship between contrast, phase shift and frequency is refer as optical transfer function
(OTF), which can be expressed as
∫∫
OTF(fx0 , fy0 ) = U(x 0, y0)U ∗ (x 0, y0) exp[−j2π(fx0 x 0 + fy0 y0)]dx 0dy0 (13)

The modulation transfer function (MTF) of the optical dome can be obtained from the module
of OTF.

2.3. Aerodynamic thermal radiation of the optical dome

The material of optical dome has a certain transmittance for infrared radiation, and its internal
thermal radiation rays can pass through the dome and cause radiation interference to the detector.
Therefore, the aerodynamic thermal radiation of the optical dome can be seen as the radiation of
the semitransparent medium. According to Beer Lambor’s law and Kirchhoff’s law, the radiant
energy emitted by the semitransparent medium is the result of the comprehensive effect of the
emission and absorption of the semitransparent medium [18]. In this study, the surface and
internal medium of optical dome was regarded as the radiative sources.
In the aerodynamic thermal environment, the temperature and refractive index of the dome
were non-uniform. In thermal-structural coupling analysis, the dome was divided by grid element.
 Research Article Vol. 28, No. 5 / 2 March 2020 / Optics Express 6176

As long as the surface element and its thickness was small enough, the temperature distribution
in each small element can be considered as uniform. The emissivity of surface elements is not
only related to the surface condition of the material, but also to the thickness of the material. It
can be expressed as [19]:

(1 − ρ)(1 − exp(−α(λ, T)b)

ε(λ, T) = (14)
1 − ρ · exp(−α(λ, T)b)

Where ρ is the material reflectivity, b is thickness of calculated position, α(λ, T) is the material
absorption coefficient.
Assuming the temperature of a surface element was Ti , according to Planck’s radiation law,
the spectral radiance of the surface element can be expressed as [10]

2εhc2 λ−5
Lλ = (15)
exp(hc/ kTi λ) − 1
where ε is the emissivity of the surface element, h is the Planck constant, c is the light speed, k is
the Boltzmann constant, and λ is the wavelength.
Any radiation surface element can be considered as Lambert radiator, which had the same
radiant luminance in all directions. It emitted infrared radiation rays in all directions of space.
The rays transmits with radiative energy. The sampled rays with limited radiative energy were
adopted to stand for the continuous radiation energy of the radiative source. Assuming that the
direction of infrared radiated rays were at an angle θ with the normal direction of the surface
elememt, and the area of surface element was ds, the radiation power dW of infrared radiated
rays emitted by the surface element within the spatial angle d Ω and within the waveband dλ can
be expressed as [10]
dW = Lλ cosθd λ d s dΩ (16)
Tracing infrared radiation rays adopted fourth order Runge-Kutta method. The radiation noise
distribution on the detector can be obtained by integrating the radiation power.
According to the radiation power of the optical dome, the output voltage of each pixel on the
detector can be obtained by Eq. (17). The output voltage of each pixel was converted into the
gray value of each pixel by a pre-processing circuit, thereby the distorted image was obtained
under the thermal radiation interference of the optical dome.

Vij = G · Rij · dWij + VNij (17)

where Vij is the output voltage of the radiation power received by the pixel (i, j), G is the gain of
the detector preamplifier, Rij is the response rate of the pixel (i, j), dWij is the radiative power of
the optical dome received by the pixel (i, j), VNij is the root mean square noise at the pixel (i, j).
Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) was used to evaluate distorted images quality. It is a
kind of the most common and widespread objective imaging evaluation parameters. It can be
expressed as [20]
(L − 1)2
 
PSNR(f , G) = 10 log 10 (18)
MSE(f , G)
where L is the pixel number of the image, MSE is mean squared error of the image.

3. Results and dicussion

3.1. The results of aero-optical transmission effect and aero-thermal radiation effect
The hemispherical shell-shaped optical dome in this study took the form of the nose of a
maneuvering missile, its structure parameters were shown in Fig. 1. The bottom diameter of
 Research Article Vol. 28, No. 5 / 2 March 2020 / Optics Express 6177

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of optical dome’s structural parameters:D was 200mm; L was
100mm.

the optical dome was 200 mm. The fineness ratio F was defined as the ratio of L to D, which
primarily determined the aerodynamic drag [21]. The fineness ratio F was 0.5. The optical dome
was made up of sapphire crystals.
Figure 2 shows temperature and deformation distribution of the optical dome after working 10s
(Mach number 3, 0° angle of attack, 20km altitude). Affected by the aerodynamic heating, the
temperature and deformation of optical dome were non-uniformly distributed. Owing to the 0°
angle of attack, the temperature and deformation of the optical dome were basically axisymmetric.
The temperature at the stationary point of the optical dome was lower and the deformation was
smaller. The highest temperature and the maximum deformation occurred at the shoulder of the
optical dome.

Fig. 2. Thermal-structural coupling calculation results: (a) Temperature distribution of the

optical dome. The maximum temperature was 348.543K; (b) The deformation distribution
of the dome. The maximum deformation is 26.3µm.

The refractive index distribution of optical dome was obtained, according to Eq. (1), as shown
in Fig. 3. The refractive index of the aerodynamically heated optical dome was influenced by
temperature distribution. The region with large refractive index deformation corresponded with
the region with high temperature. The maximum variation of the refractive index was 5.5×10−4 .
An ideal optical system was fixed at the back of optical dome to single out imaging quality
degradation caused by the aero-optical. The parameters of ideal infrared optical system and
infrared photodetector were listed in Table 1.
The optical incidence angle was defined as shown in Fig. 4 when tracing the target ray and
the thermal radiation ray emitted from the optical dome. The bottom center of the optical dome
coincided with the origin coordinate system, and the azimuth started with the z-axis. The azimuth
 Research Article Vol. 28, No. 5 / 2 March 2020 / Optics Express 6178

Fig. 3. Refractive index distribution of the optical dome.

Table 1. The parameters of ideal infrared optical system and infrared photodetector.
Optical System Parameters value
Focal length(mm) 150
Wavelength(µm) 3∼5
Diameters of the entrance pupil(mm) 90
Diameters of the exit pupil(mm) 6.6
Detector pixels length(µm) × width(µm) 50×50
Number of detector pixels 128×128
Responsivity of the infrared photodetector(V/W) 6×106
Output dynamic range (V) 0.4∼2.1
Pre-amplification 78
Maximum RMS (root mean square) noise (V) 0.1
Working time of optical dome(s) 10

incidence angle increased along the counterclockwise direction. The elevation incidence angle
increased along the clockwise direction with the negative x-axis as the starting axis. The optical
axis direction coincided with the negative X -axis direction.

Fig. 4. Definitions for azimuth and elevation incident angles.

 Research Article Vol. 28, No. 5 / 2 March 2020 / Optics Express 6179

Target beam can be considered as parallel beam. Results on wave aberration (Mach number 3,
0° angle of attack, 20 km altitude) for the 0°/0° (azimuth/elevation) incident angle was obtained
by tracking the target beam, as shown in Fig. 5. The peak-to-valley (PV) values of the wave
aberration at the exit pupil was 1.125λ. The result indicated the beam was broken up after
transmitting through the non-uniform refractive index of aerodynamic heated optical dome.
Moreover, there were discontinuities of wave aberration around the edge of the exit pupil, which
could be attributed to the relatively sparse refractive index grids of the optical dome [17].

Fig. 5. Wave aberration results: The PV values of the wave aberration was 1.125λ.

Figure 6 shows target distortion image under the influence of the aero-optical transmission
effect of the optical dome. Compared with the original image, the distorted image became blurred
and the imaging quality was obviously degraded.

Fig. 6. Distortion image under the influence of the aero-optical transmission effect of the
optical dome: (a) original image; (b) distorted image.

Intense infrared radiation was emitted by aerodynamically heated optical dome. The irradiance
distribution of the optical dome on the detector photosensitive plane is shown in Fig. 7 after 10s.
The non-uniform distributed of temperature and refractive index of the optical dome resulted in
non-uniform irradiance distribution on the photosensitive surface of the detector. The maximum
irradiance on the detector photosensitive plane of the detector was 0.5982W/m2 .
Under the influence of the aero-thermal radiation effect, the distortion image is shown in
Fig. 8. Compared with Fig. 6(b), the aero-thermal radiation effect only increased the background
noise of the image and did not affect image’s high-frequency components. The characters in the
image were not blurred, but the background gray value increased, resulting in imaging quality
degrading.
 Research Article Vol. 28, No. 5 / 2 March 2020 / Optics Express 6180

Fig. 7. Irradiance distributions on photosensitive plane of the detector.

Fig. 8. Distortion image under the influence of the aero-thermal radiation effect of the
optical dome: (a) original image; (b) distorted image.

The aero-thermal effects, aero-optical transmission effects, and aero-thermal radiation effects
are closely related to the flight parameters of the high-speed missile and the structural parameters
of the optical dome. The Influence of the flight speed and the thickness of the optical dome on
the three kinds of aerodynamic effects were examined respectively.

Fig. 9. The maximum temperature and maximum deformation of the optical dome varies
with flight speed (the thickness of optical dome was 6mm).
 Research Article Vol. 28, No. 5 / 2 March 2020 / Optics Express 6181

3.2. Influence of flight speed on aero-optical imaging quality

The maximum temperature and the maximum deformation of the optical dome (0° angle of
attack, 20km altitude) varied with flight speed, as shown in Fig. 9. The initial temperature
of the optical dome was assumed to be 300k. Increasing flight speed from 2Ma to 4Ma, the
maximum temperature of optical dome increased from 310.446K to 420.098K, and the maximum
deformation increased from 5.8µm to 64.9 µm. According to Eq. (1), the maximum variation of
refractive index ∆n increased from 1×10−4 to 1.9×10−3 .
The MTF results for the 0°/0° (azimuth/elevation) incident angle is shown in Fig. 10. Different
colors curves indicated MTF results at different flight speeds. The cut-off frequency of MTF
was obtained based on the pixels of the detector and the Nyquist sampling law. Figure 11 shows
the variation of the sagittal and meridional value of the MTF with the flight speed at the MTF
cut-off frequency (10lp/mm). The sagittal and meridian value of MTF were basically equal due
to the 0° angle of attack and the axisymmetry of the optical dome. These results indicated that
the influence of aero-optical transmission effect on imaging quality degradation was gradually
enhanced.

Fig. 10. The MTF results varied with flight speed.

Fig. 11. The MTF results varied with flight speed at cut-off frequency of 10 lp/mm.

Figure 12 shows the variation of the maximum irradiance received on the detector with flight
speed. Compared with Fig. 9, the variation of irradiance with flight speed was consistent with
 Research Article Vol. 28, No. 5 / 2 March 2020 / Optics Express 6182

the temperature variation of the optical dome. With the flight speed increasing, the maximum
irradiance increased gradually. When the missile flying for 10s at 4Ma, the maximum irradiance
reached 2.09W/m2 .

Fig. 12. Variation of irradiance with flight speed.

As shown in Fig. 13, target distortion images were obtained under the comprehensive influence
of aero-optical transmission effect and aero-thermal radiation effect. Flight speeds ranged from
2Ma to 4Ma, flight speed step was 0.5Ma. Compared with the original image Fig. 13(a), as
flight speed increasing, the image became blurred, and the background noise of the image was
enhanced. When the speed increasing above 3.5 Ma, the detector reached saturation due to
excessive thermal radiation noise, and the image information was submerged by thermal radiation
noise.

Fig. 13. The distortion images under the comprehensive influence of aero-optical effect
with the changes of flight speed: (a) original image; (b)∼(f) distorted image.

In order to examine the comprehensive influence of two kinds of aero-optical effects on images
more intuitively, the same imaging evaluation parameter (PSNR) was introduced. As shown
in Fig. 14, the influence of aero-optical transmission effect on PSNR of distorted image was
weaker, compared with aero-thermal radiation effect. When the flight speed increasing from 2Ma
to 4Ma, the PSNR of distorted images affected by aero-optical transmission effect decreased
by only 1.148. However, the PSNR of the distorted image affected by the aero-radiation effect
 Research Article Vol. 28, No. 5 / 2 March 2020 / Optics Express 6183

decreased by 6.232. When the flight speed increasing above 3.5 Ma, the PSNR of the distorted
image remained unchanged, indicating that the detector had reached saturation, and the image
information was submerged by thermal radiation noise.

Fig. 14. PSNR results variation of distorted image with the changes of flight speed.

3.3. Influence of thickness of optical dome on aero-optical imaging quality

The variation of the maximum temperature and deformation with the thickness of the optical
dome (0° angle of attack, 20 km altitude,3Ma) was shown in Fig. 15. The thickness of the optical
dome was examined in a range of values from 4mm to 8mm, with a step length of 1mm. As the
thickness of the optical dome increasing, the maximum temperature of optical dome decreased
from 365.208K to 340.588K, the maximum deformation decreased from 36.3µm to 20.8 µm, and
according to thermo-optic effect, the maximum variation of refractive index ∆n decreased from
1.8×10−3 to 1.1×10−3 .

Fig. 15. The maximum temperature and maximum deformation varied with the thickness
of the optical dome.

The thickness of the optical dome had a serious effect on imaging quality degradation. As
shown in Fig. 16, the MTF results decreased sharply with the thickness of the optical dome when
 Research Article Vol. 28, No. 5 / 2 March 2020 / Optics Express 6184

the incident rays were incident at 0°/0° (azimuth/elevation). Figure 17 shows the variation of the
MTF results with the thickness of the optical dome at the cut-off frequency (10lp/mm). As the
thickness of the optical dome increasing, although the variation of refractive index of optical
dome decreased gradually, the MTF result decreased more severely. The influence of aero-optical
transmission effect on imaging quality enhanced gradually.

Fig. 16. The MTF results varied with the thickness of optical dome.

Fig. 17. The MTF results varied with thickness at cut-off frequency of 10 lp/mm.

With thickness of optical dome increasing, the irradiance received on the detector decreased
gradually, as shown in Fig. 18. The variation of irradiance with the thickness was always
consistent with temperature (see Fig. 15). This result indicated that temperature had a great effect
on the aero-thermal radiation effect of the optical dome.
Figure 19 shows the variation of the distorted images with thickness of the optical dome
under the comprehensive influence of the aero-optical transmission effect and the aero-thermal
radiation effect. As the thickness of the optical dome increased, the images affected by the
aero-optical transmission effect become blurred more seriously. However, the background noise
of the image affected by the aero-thermal radiation effect decreased, leading to improvement of
imaging quality.
 Research Article Vol. 28, No. 5 / 2 March 2020 / Optics Express 6185

Fig. 18. Variation of irradiance received on the detector with the thickness of the optical
dome.

Fig. 19. Distortion image under the comprehensive influence of aero-optical effect:(a)
original image;(b)∼(f) distorted image; thickness range from 4mm to 8mm, step length was
1mm.

The PSNR of the distorted image varying with the thickness of the optical dome was shown
in Fig. 20. Affected by the aero-optical transmission effect, the PSNR of the image reduced

Fig. 20. PSNR results variation of distorted image with the changes of thickness.
 Research Article Vol. 28, No. 5 / 2 March 2020 / Optics Express 6186

from 20.100 to 13.942. However, the PSNR of the images affected by the aero-thermal radiation
effect gradually increased. Compared with the aero-optical transmission effect, the aero-thermal
radiation effect had a greater influence on the PSNR of the images. This result indicated that as
the thickness of the optical dome increased, the imaging quality gradually became better.

4. Summary
Numerical simulations were performed on the optical dome to evaluate the variation of the optical
dome’s temperature, deformation and refractive index. Three evaluation parameters (MTF,
irradiance, PSNR of distorted images) were proposed to evaluate aero-optical effect. Affected by
the aero-optical transmission effect, the MTF degraded sharply at high frequency and the target
image became blurred. Affected by the aero-thermal radiation effect, the thermal radiation noise
of the image increased, resulting in the increase of gray value of the images. In severe cases,
the images were overwhelmed by thermal radiation noise. The aero-optical transmission effects
and the aero-thermal radiation effects are closely related to the flight speed of the high-speed
missile and the thickness of the optical dome. When flight speed increased from 2Ma to 4Ma, the
maximum temperature of optical dome increased from 310.446K to 420.098K, and the maximum
deformation increased from 5.8µm to 64.9 µm. Due to the aero-optical transmission effect, the
MTF decreased at the same frequency and the images became more and more blurred. However,
the PSNR of the images varied little. Meanwhile, affected by the aero-thermal radiation effect,
the irradiance received on the detector gradually increased, and its variation with flight speed was
consistent with the temperature of the optical dome. The PSNR of the image decreased gradually.
When the flight speed reached over 3.5 Ma, the target images were submerged by thermal radiation
noise. As the thickness of the optical dome increased, the maximum temperature of optical dome
decreased from 365.208K to 340.588K, the maximum deformation decreased from 36.3µm to
20.8 µm. Affected by the aero-optical transmission effect, the MTF decreased sharply at the same
frequency, the PSNR of the images varied greatly, and images were blurred seriously. However,
affected by the aero-thermal radiation effect, the irradiance received on the detector and the
PSNR of the images decreased gradually, resulting in improvement of the imaging quality.
Comparing the PSNR of distorted image affected by aero-optical transmission effect, aero-
thermal radiation effect and comprehensive influence of two kinds of aero-optical effect, the
influence of aero-thermal radiation effect on imaging quality degradation was severer than that of
aero-optical transmission effect. When the flight speed of the missile is over 2Ma, the influence
of aero-optical effect on imaging quality degradation becomes more and more serious, therefore
the aero-optical effect can not be ignored. The temperature of the optical dome is closely related
to the aero-thermal radiation effect. Suppressing the aero-optical effect to reduce the influence of
aero-thermal radiation effect on imaging quality degradation, the most effective way is to reduce
the temperature of the optical dome.

Funding
National Natural Science Foundation of China (61905050); National Basic Research Program of
China (973 Program) (2017YFB1300101).

Acknowledgments
Thank Dr. Sun for proofreading this paper; The authors are grateful to the reviewers and editors
for their helpful and invaluable comments.

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