Block 2 fought in the radio spectrum, where a radar must radiate to work. Block 3 shifts up in frequency to the infrared and electro-optical bands, where the target's own heat is the emission — every warm object glows, and its temperature sets both how much it radiates and where that energy peaks.
Why warm objects radiate, Wien and Stefan-Boltzmann, the MWIR and LWIR atmospheric windows, reflective vs emissive sensing, and cooled photon detectors.
FlashcardsKey terms and relations from the lesson, in a self-test deck.
Pre-flightFive questions to work before class — anyone can be called to the board.
SlidesThe deck we work through in class, as a PDF you can annotate.
DemoSet a source temperature and watch the Planck curve slide, its Wien peak move between the MWIR and LWIR windows, and the in-band fraction update.