Flow-similarity-based modeling method for aero-optical aberrations

With the increasing speed of vehicles, the influence of aero-optical transmission effects on airborne optical imaging has become increasingly critical. An important aspect of aero-optical aberration research is to develop prediction models that can estimate such aberrations under various flight and imaging conditions, thereby providing prior information for aberration correction. However, due to the multitude of influencing factors, reliable prediction models are still lacking. In this study, a method for constructing prediction models of aero-optical aberrations is introduced, derived from the similarity of aero-optical transmission aberration, which itself is based on the principle of flow similarity in the inviscid core region of supersonic flows. The proposed model is validated using a side-window blunt-cone vehicle at Mach 3, with 0 ∘ angle of attack and 0 ∘ line-of-sight angle. Computational results show that within the altitude range of 6km to 20km, the weighted R w 2 value for the linear fit between aero-optical aberration and free-stream density reaches 0.9973, indicating the model’s exceptional predictive accuracy.