Splash Detection/ Fall of Shot


The IMAGO Splash Detection system is designed to measure the impact point of weapons fired at a naval or land-based  test site.  IMAGO’s splash detection system uses a staring array solution and can support up to 8 stations.

The Splash Detection System provides the following information:

  • Splash location in different coordinate systems (NEU/WGS84)
  • Range and drift off line of fire
  • Miss distance
  • Time resolution to within +/-50 msec (1 frame time) 
  • Summary report of days shots
  • 3D map display showing SDS locations, target locations and splash locations  


The Splash detection includes offers the following functionality:

  • Ability to turn and point the cameras to a location where the impact is expected.
  • Ability to control image brightness automatically or manually.
  • Ability upon trigger of recording ~20 seconds of data.
  • Ability to scroll through the image sequence to identify the splash.  
  • Save splash location to 0.0001 deg resolution. (manual or automatic mode)
  • Save location (Az and El) of other points such as survey points & reference floats can also be recorded and saved to 0.0001 deg resolution via manual designation.
  • Ability to reprocess the event by reloading the data.
  • It accepts a trigger from the gun and expected flight time
  • Multiple splash detection stations can communicate with each other to verify that the same event is detected based on IRIG time. (Optional).
  • Cue mode of operation allows the system to follow a moving target based on an input cue, while recording video.   


Automatic Splash Detection (Optional)

IMAGO's splash detection image-processing algorithm has been optimized for automatic detection and extraction of large splashes caused by munitions entering the water.  Specifically:

  • The algorithm is designed to exclude other moving objects such as birds or boats
  • The algorithm is designed to handle white caps and motion of waves
  • The algorithm is designed to handle some sunlight reflection off the water.  However large amounts of solar reflection will reduce the effectiveness of the automatic detection algorithm.
  • The camera image brightness is automatically adjusted to help keep the image clear. 
  • The algorithm extracts the position where the munitions entered the water and the time. 
  • The algorithm deals with skewed splash (not straight), and a splash of different shapes.
  • The algorithm can detect if the munitions detonated and exploded above the water.