Theory of radiation from low velocity heated air

The application of hypersonic computational fluid dynamics models to low velocity vehicles is examined. Modeling aspects such as chemical kinetics, electronic excitation/deexcitation mechanisms, and existence of equilibrium versus nonequilibrium conditions in the flow were examined. Flowfield properties and in-band radiances in the wavelength region of .25 micron in the vicinity of the stagnation streamline are given for a three-inch hemisphere.