Analysis of CIE-color values using the example of tracer munition

In pyrotechnic developments, the colour of burning mixtures is mostly very important, for example in fireworks, smoke compositions and tracer munitions. The objective determination of the colour is hard to achieve due to the not-measureable subjective feeling of human colour impression. There-fore in 1931, the international commission on illumination (CIE - Commission internationale de l`éclairage) investigated the human colour vision and developed an objective colour system, called the CIE standard colour system. In this work a short summary of CIE colour value calculation and of the dominant wavelength is presented. In a theoretical study, the influence of the background on the CIE colour values was investigated and the method was applied to an example of tracer munition.