Abstract
According to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other sources, lasing of aircraft is a growing aviation safety concern nationwide, with 13,304 aircraft illumination events reported to the FAA in 2023. Though there have been isolated reports of pilots sustaining eye injuries that cause persisting visual impairment, the primary risk associated with laser strikes is pilot distraction from temporary effects such as dazzle (i.e. glare) and afterimages during a critical phase of flight. In an effort to support the introduction of a laser experience into pilot training programs, we have created a simulation of laser dazzle effects in virtual reality (VR), to include dazzle and afterimages. While the luminance of a typical digital display cannot match that of a high-brightness laser, the apparent visual contrast reduction resulting from laser glare can be simulated on a display to be empirically accurate for given quantitative parameters of the visual scene and laser being simulated. The extent of the visual field obscured by the VR laser dazzle effect was measured in a small group of human participants, and the results generally correlated well with empirically-based model predictions of obscuration angle under the same irradiance and background luminance conditions. The overall goal of this effort is to create validated laser dazzle packages that can be incorporated into VR flight simulators to enable wargaming, training, education, and development of tactics in response to laser exposures, these being difficult or impractical to accomplish with physical lasers and live training.