OSIRIS™

Ocean Stabilized Ionosphere Remote Imaging Sensor

The emergence of offensive hypersonic vehicles in combat zones presents significant challenges for U.S. defensive systems, as their extreme speed drastically reduces the time available for detection and response. As these ultra-fast vehicles travel and maneuver through the atmosphere, friction with the air generates an extremely hot layer of ionized gas, or plasma, around them. When this plasma cools, it emits light at specific wavelengths—a signature created by atmospheric molecules returning to their normal state.

Detecting and analyzing this light signature would enable earlier identification of hypersonic threats, enhance the effectiveness of existing defensive systems, and ensure U.S. capabilities can outpace this evolving threat.

THE SOLUTION

To detect these objects and engage these platforms effectively, Orion, an Arcfield company, has developed the Ocean Stabilized Ionosphere Remote Imaging Sensor (OSIRIS). The OSIRIS all-sky imager represents a breakthrough in hypersonic threat detection by providing a mobile platform for capturing plasma signatures. This specialized system integrates advanced sensors capable of detecting and analyzing the unique light emissions produced when ionized atmospheric particles recombine in the wake of hypersonic vehicles.

OSIRIS can be based on land or deployed on autonomous wavegliders across vast ocean areas. The ability to autonomously operate and collect ionospheric data from the ocean surface fills a crucial gap in current observational capabilities, particularly in remote ocean regions where OSIRIS Deployed OSIRIS system collecting plasma emission signatures for hypersonic threat detection from an autonomous surface vehicle platform. Ocean Stabilized Ionosphere Remote Imaging Sensor traditional detection infrastructure is impractical or impossible to install. This capability creates a distributed network of sensors that can continuously monitor for threats across maritime domains and integrate with land-based sensors and command and control systems. The mobility and autonomy of OSIRIS not only enhances hypersonic threat detection efforts but also represent a transformative approach to addressing the global challenge of monitoring rapidly evolving, hard-to-detect weapon systems in the modern battlespace.

SYSTEM PERFORMANCE

Unlike traditional active radar or directed sensors, OSIRIS relies on passively observing naturally occurring light emissions, offering several distinct advantages:

• Operates covertly

• Avoids the risk of revealing the sensor’s location to adversaries

• Less susceptible to countermeasures like electronic warfare or jamming

As a passive capability, OSIRIS is ideal for co-location with traditional engagement sensors, complementing and extending their detection range and accuracy by adding an additional dimension to hypersonic threat tracking.

OSIRIS delivers a uniquely mobile, passive and resilient capability for detecting and characterizing hypersonic threats—closing critical coverage gaps across remote and maritime domains. Orion’s sensing solution strengthens integrated sensing architectures by extending detection timelines, improving tracking fidelity and enabling more effective, coordinated defensive responses in an increasingly contested battlespace.

DEMONSTRATED RESULTS

OSIRIS successfully collected data from a land-based siting during a recent sounding rocket test, capturing data during both second stage motor burn out and reentry phases. The captured imagery above consists of two single-frame exposures, taken during both the boost and glide phase.

Due to the sensor’s narrow spectral bandwidth, longer integration times were required, resulting in motion streaking of both the boost and glide phase. While the moon’s presence in the frame caused some saturation, the sensor successfully captured the key phenomena under investigation.

Most significantly, the reentry image shows the characteristic emission tail produced by ionospheric chemical recombination behind the vehicle—a feature undetectable using conventional whitelight imaging techniques. This demonstration validates the effectiveness of spectral imaging for hypersonic vehicle detection and tracking.