EO/IR targeting explorer

Not TAWS

Unclassified // educational use only · generic open-source ballparks

Products Compute a scenario to populate the charts.

Nothing computed yet.
Set a place, a target, a sensor and the weather in the scenario panel, then press Compute. After the first run the charts follow every change you make.

About this project

Hey—we're Sean and Derek. This is Not TAWS.

An infrared sensor does not see a tank; it sees the difference between the tank and whatever is behind it, after the air in between has eaten most of that difference. Whether a pod can recognise a target at launch range is a chain of five models — ephemeris, weather, target and background thermal state, atmospheric transmission, and the sensor itself — and the answer is exquisitely sensitive to inputs that look like clerical details. This site runs that whole chain in your browser so you can pick a place, a date, a target, a background, a sensor and the weather, and watch the range collapse when one of them is wrong.

Built to teach, real enough to plan a lesson around

The physics is the textbook chain a TAWS operator is taught: a Meeus solar and lunar ephemeris, a lumped-capacitance diurnal thermal model, band-averaged LOWTRAN-style transmission, an MRTD and Johnson-criteria sensor model with the TTPF. But this is a teaching aid, full stop: every target signature, sensor parameter and weapon figure is an unclassified open-source ballpark, the ranges are relative teaching numbers, and for anything operational you go to your command's authoritative sources.

What this cannot see

  • Band-averaged empirical transmission, not MODTRAN; no line-by-line, no multiple scattering, no path-radiance term beyond a simple sky/ground correction.
  • A lumped-capacitance thermal model with a fixed parameter library; real TAWS uses detailed target geometry and material models. Crossover times are indicative (±30–60 min).
  • MRTD curves are generic exponentials; real sensors' MRTD and processing differ. Ranges are relative teaching numbers, not performance figures for any fielded system.
  • No terrain, no cloud-shadow geometry, no target obscuration by smoke or dust, no turbulence blur except a note in the laser lesson.
  • Weather is what you type, or what you chose to load. GFS 0.25° surface fields can be pulled in for the point and valid time, but they are a forecast at a gridpoint, never an observation at the target — and every loaded field stays editable, with the TDA printing which numbers were the model's and which were yours. The first thing a TAWS operator must learn is that the TDA is a function of their inputs.
  • Ranges are relative teaching numbers — ±20 % would be a good day for a real TDA. Crossover times are ±30–60 min, and near one even the sign of ΔT is uncertain.
  • Over water the typed visibility is a weak lever: wind above ~7 m/s and RH above 95 % drive IR extinction while visibility barely moves. The LWIR humidity continuum is ±30 %, so hot-humid LWIR ranges are the least trustworthy numbers here.

Creators

CREATORS

LT Sean Egan, PhD & AG1 Derek Conklin
United States Navy · A partnership building learning tools for our METOC, space, cyber, and cryptologic colleagues.
sean@theinformed.org

Sources

AFRL / AFWA TAWS documentation and NPS theses for the problem framing; Holst, Lloyd and Hudson for the sensor chain; Kruse and Kim et al. for visibility-to-extinction; Gathman's Navy Aerosol Model; Meeus for the ephemeris; Krisciunas & Schaefer and USNO for night-sky illuminance; STANAG 4347 for the standard target. Each lesson cites its sources inline.

Built in the spirit of the EOTDA/IRTOOL/TAWS class of EO/IR tactical decision aids.

Independent educational project, built by us on our own time. The views expressed here are ours alone and do not reflect the official policy or position of the U.S. Navy, the Department of War / Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government, nor do we represent them. This site is intended for learning, not operations — not for operational decisions; use it at your own risk. No TAWS, AFRL, 557th Weather Wing or NRL branding, endorsement, or affiliation is implied. Not a forecast, warning, or substitute for official guidance.

Why is it like this?

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Not TAWS · EO/IR targeting explorer

See the range. Then break it.