Nutation characteristics analysis and infrared signature simulation of ballistic targets

Nutation characteristics are the important evidence to classify ballistic targets in the missile defense. Current nutation researches are mainly on the targets of the rotational symmetric mass distribution. However, in fact a little bit of asymmetric tolerances of the mass distribution would induce a large difference in nutation characteristics and result in classification errors. This article does an extension study on the nutation dynamics taking asymmetric tolerances into account, analyzes the nutation characteristics and establishes the infrared (IR) irradiance signature simulation model of ballistic targets. It is found that the asymmetric spinning target would form an elliptic coning motion with a time-varying angular velocity due to the existence of cross-coupling effects; IR signatures of different nutation types can be described into a unified data generative model, which enhances the abilities to analyze nutation data and helps to improve the accuracy of target classification.