Standard atmospheric representations for infrared propagation modeling

To assist in design and optimization processes, the standard atmospheric profiles have been investigated. This study has been both phenomenological and statistical, within the confines of available databases. The original standard atmosphere profile dataset was collated using radiosonde data thirty years ago, with general applications in mind, rather than specifically IR propagation applications. These data have been revisited and compared with a compilation of a large number of radiosonde data used for atmospheric retrieval initial estimations (the TIGR database). Although in general the LOWTRAN standard atmospheres represent reasonable mean conditions, these models do not cover the design limits required for IR systems.