Once the presence of a “live” IR (Infra Red) missile is indicated, flares are released by the aircraft in an attempt to decoy the missile; some systems are automatic, while others require manual jettisoning of the flares. The aircraft would then pull away at a sharp angle from the flare (and the terminal trajectory of the missile) and reduce engine power in attempt to cool the thermal signature. Optimally, the missile’s seeker head is then confused by this change in temperature and flurry of new signatures, and therefore follows the flare(s) rather than the aircraft. Flares burn at thousands of degrees, which is much hotter than what jet exhaust burns at (around one thousand degrees). IR missiles seek out the hotter (and “brighter”) source, believing it to be an aircraft in afterburner or the beginning of the engine’s exhaust source. As the more modern infrared seekers tend to have spectral sensitivity tailored to more closely match the emissions of airplanes and reject other sources (the so-called CCM, or counter-countermeasures), the modernized decoy flares have their emission spectrum optimized to also match the radiation of the airplane (mainly its engines and engine exhaust). In addition to spectral discrimination, the CCMs can include trajectory discrimination and detection of size of the radiation source.